Legitimation Crisis?

To begin with a sweeping generalisation I haven't actually managed to verify; virtually every functioning democracy in the world makes some provision for citizens residing abroad to vote in its elections. One of the few notable exceptions is, of course, Ireland.*

There's no constitutional reason for this to be so - the relevant passage reads;

"Article 16

1. 1° Every citizen without distinction of sex who has reached the age of twenty-one years, and who is not placed under disability or incapacity by this Constitution or by law, shall be eligible for membership of Dáil Éireann.

2°
i All citizens, and
ii such other persons in the State as may be determined by law,without distinction of sex who have reached the age of eighteen years who are not disqualified by law and comply with the provisions of the law relating to the election of members of Dáil Éireann, shall have the right to vote at an election for members of Dáil Éireann.

3° No law shall be enacted placing any citizen under disability or incapacity for membership of Dáil Éireann on the ground of sex or disqualifying any citizen or other person from voting at an election for members of Dáil Éireann on that ground."

And if there were, I think there would be a substantive case for a referendum on the issue. God knows, we've held them on much more dubious grounds in the past.

As I noted previously, the current economic climate will very likely result in a new wave of emigrants from the country, people who are forced, contra Eoghan Harris, to leave the country in order to find work. Moreover, by doing so, they (we) will be doing a positive service to the Irish economy.

Now, those people are Irish citizens, generally wish to reside in Ireland, and are entitled constitutionally and morally to the same protections by the Irish government as any other Irish citizen. They are, under any relevant description, stakeholders in Irish society and have, if anything, a stronger vested interest in the recovery of the national economy than those who can afford to remain.

Yet the current legal provisions bar such people from entry on the Electoral Register. Consequently, their voices are denied representation in the Dáil, and the political parties have little motivation to safeguard their interests.

In other words, those Irish citizens and residents hardest hit by the recession are systematically excluded from influencing the process of recovery. Those charged with alleviating the crisis are in no way accountable to those most negatively impacted by it. It would be no exaggeration to say this casts a pall of democratic illegitimacy over every decision the Irish government takes affecting its economy - and hence its economic migrants - and it is a situation that needs urgent review.

Obviously, there are no plans on the table, though Labour and Fine Gael did jointly propose overseas representation to the Seanad in 2006. The toothlessness of that measure is perhaps best indicated by the fact that it has been proposed at all. Those forced to leave the country will not, as a rule, hold an especially high view of the politicians responsible - and it is obviously not in the interests of any politician to extend the franchise to any hostile group. But while the resulting stasis may be politically inevitable, it is surely intolerable in moral terms.





* I think Greece is another exception. But the point here is not the universality, rather that it's not an inherently absurd thing to do, nor are the associated logistical considerations insurmountable.