Professor Michael Gallagher

Michael Gallagher is a Professor in the Department of Political Science (Associate Professor 1998-2006) and is currently in his eighth year as Head of Department. He was a Lecturer (since 2012 this grade has been titled assistant professor) in the department 1979-1998. He was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2013. He was a Visiting Professor in the Center for European Studies and Ireland House, New York University, 1997, a Visiting Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration, City University, Hong Kong, 2001, and a Visiting Professor at Sciences-Po Lille in February 2007. He did two degrees (a first degree and a masters) in Computer Science, emphasising the area of artificial intelligence and using in particular the specialist language POP-2, before switching to Political Science in the mid-1970s. His main areas of expertise are comparative electoral systems, political institutions, political parties, and Irish politics.

  Backgrounds, attitudes and activism of party members   Comparative European politics   Comparative political institutions   Electoral systems   Irish politics   Political parties

His main specialism in a comparative context is electoral systems, which could be very broadly defined as the set of rules that structure the way in which votes at elections are cast and then convert these votes into seats. He maintains an electoral systems web site at http://www.tcd.ie/Political_Science/Staff/michael_gallagher/ElSystems/index.php He is also interested in the role of political institutions generally. For a number of years he has worked on political parties, especially their internal organisation and the role of members within them. He has undertaken research on many aspects of Irish politics, and on a number of aspects of comparative European politics.