ProfessorDavid Farrell

Professor Farrell is a specialist in the study of representation, elections, parties, and deliberative mini-publics. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and of the Academia Europaea (Academy of Europe). His most recent books include: Electoral Systems: A Global Perspective (co-authored, Bloomsbury, 2024), The Oxford Handbook of Irish Politics (co-edited, Oxford University Press, 2021), and Deliberative Mini-Publics: Core Design Features (co-authored, Bristol University Press, 2021). 

In addition he has published 20 other books (authored/edited) including the award winning Political Parties and Democratic Linkage: How Parties Organize Democracy, published by Oxford University Press in 2011. Much of his current work is focused on deliberative mini-publics. To date he has advised and/or researched six government-led deliberative mini-public processes in Ireland, the UK and Belgium.

Professor Farrell was Head of School at University College Dublin from 2010-13 and again from 2016-21. Prior to his move to Dublin in 2009, he was professor and head of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester. He has held visiting positions in the Australian National University, Harvard, Mannheim, and the University of California Irvine. From 1995-2018 he was the founding co-editor of Party Politics. He was President of the Political Studies Association of Ireland from 2012-16. From 2023-24, he served as Vice-President of the Royal Irish Academy.

He was Chair of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) from 2021-24. Prior to that, he was the Chair of the Finance Sub-Committee of the ECPR from 2018-21.

In 2024 he became a member of the Research Advisory Group of Ireland's new Electoral Commission.

Other previous positions have included: member of the Stewarding Group of the Scottish Citizens’ Assembly; research leader of the Irish Citizens' Assembly (funded by the Irish Research Council); membership of the Welsh Assembly's Expert Panel on Electoral Reform; Chair of the Forum on Parliamentary Discipline established by the Ceann Comhairle (Speaker) of Dáil Éireann; President of the Political Studies Association of Ireland; Speaker of the Council of the European Consortium for Political Research; and membership of the international advisory boards of the Electoral Integrity project and Making Electoral Democracy Work project.

Currently, Professor Farrell is a member of the advisory board of the following projects: Politicize: Non-elected Politics in Europe (http://politicize.eu/ funded by EU Horizon 2020); Peritia: Policy, Expertise and Trust (https://peritia-trust.eu/ funded by EU Horizon 2020); FIRIPO: Finnish Research Infrastructure for Public Opinion (https://www.firipo.fi/ funded by the Academy of Finland). He is also a member of the transnational advisory board of the programme 'Common Ground: Shaping Regions Across Borders', organised by the Robert Bosch Stiftung (https://www.bosch-stiftung.de/de/projekt/common-ground-ueber-grenzen-mitgestalten/beirat), and he is a member of the OECD Innovative Citizen Participation Network (https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/5f3ebb6f-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/5f3ebb6f-en).

Professor Farrell has been the recipient of the following prizes:

The 2019 Irish Research Council 'Researcher of the Year -- Impact Award' for making 'a highly significant contribution in his field beyond academia'. http://research.ie/2019/12/05/irish-research-council-announce-2019-researchers-of-the-year/

The 2019 Laurence and Lynne Brown Medal awarded by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State University for ‘The Irish Citizens’ Assembly Project’ (http://citizenassembly.ie/home/) (shared with Jane Suiter). The Medal ‘spotlights and honors the best work being done to advance democracy in the United States and internationally’.

The 2012 Brian Farrell Book Prize of the Political Studies Association of Ireland for his co-authored book (with Russell Dalton and Ian McAllister), Political Parties and Democratic Linkage. How Parties Organize Democracy, published by Oxford University Press in 2011.

The 2012 Leon Weaver Award, presented by the American Political Science Association’s section on Representation and Electoral Systems for his co-authored paper (with Russell Dalton and Ian McAllister) on ‘The Dynamics of Democratic Representation: How Democracy Works’, presented at the 2011 APSA convention.

The 2012 GESIS Klingemann Prize for the Best CSES Scholarship for his co-authored book (with Russell Dalton and Ian McAllister), Political Parties and Democratic Linkage. How Parties Organize Democracy, published by Oxford University Press in 2011. The prize is awarded each year for the best scholarship using Comparative Studies of Electoral Systems (CSES) data published in the calendar year prior to the award, and named in honour of Professor Hans-Dieter Klingemann, an internationally renowned political scientist, major contributor to comparative research, and co-founder of the CSES project.