January 14, 2008 at 3:32PM On the direct election of the Taoiseach
Bernie raises the idea of a directly elected Taoiseach. I posted the following comment (which appears to have ended up in /dev/null somehow) explaining why I don’t think this is either practical or desirable.
I have to say, while I agree with the idea of making mayors directly electable, the idea of making the office of Taoiseach directly electable seems somewhat, well, unworkable. The job of the US president is somewhat different from that of a head of state in a parliamentary democracy. While in a congressional democracy the head of the executive branch doesn’t need to have a power block in the upper and lower houses to do their job (though it helps), the head of government in a parliamentary democracy does. This is because the head of the executive branch in a congressional democracy combines most of the powers of the head of state with those of the head of government, meaning they have powers of veto, and so on, which heads of governments in parliamentary democracies don’t have.
Still, I’d say the election of the Taoiseach is at least a little more direct than that of the US President. They’re directly elected by their constituents, and then confirmed in the office by local delegates that have been directly elected to the Oireachtas.
[Aside: Yes, I know the Taoiseach is appointed by the President according to the constitution, but in reality, the President just confirms the selection of the Oireachtas.]
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