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Deliberative Democracy in Northern Ireland: Opportunities and Challenges for Consensus in a Consociational System

  • Chapter
Democratic Deliberation in Deeply Divided Societies

Abstract

The Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement of April 1998 is, in essence, a consociational arrangement which sees power shared between elites from two political blocs in Northern Ireland: unionism and nationalism.1 When parties signed the Agreement, in effect they agreed to accept the prospect of two divergent aspirations: Northern Ireland could remain in the United Kingdom, which was what unionist parties wanted, or it could be integrated into a single Republic of Ireland, as sought by nationalist parties. As a consequence, although benefitting from the devolved, stable and carefully balanced governance made possible by consocia-tionalism, Northern Ireland’s peace process is imbued with a sense of underlying lack of resolution. And as a result of this uncertainty, short-term political capital is gained within competing blocs at the expense of long-term social change in the common interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queen’s University, Belfast, UK

    Katy Hayward (Senior Lecturer in Sociology)

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  1. Katy Hayward
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© 2014 Katy Hayward

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Hayward, K. (2014). Deliberative Democracy in Northern Ireland: Opportunities and Challenges for Consensus in a Consociational System. In: Democratic Deliberation in Deeply Divided Societies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137357816_2

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