The Northern Ireland Assembly: Reputations and Realities

The Northern Ireland power-sharing Assembly is understudied in legislative studies literature, with this book being the first to examine how it fulfils four core functions: representation, linkage, scrutiny, and policy-making. It uses original data from elite interviews, surveys, parliamentary questions, legislation, and the Official Report of parliamentary proceedings to explore who and how MLAs represent, their approach to cultivating links with constituents, their use of parliamentary scrutiny tools, and their contribution to law-making.

Format: Hardback
Length: 166 pages
Publication date: 08 September 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

The Legislative Studies literature has paid relatively little attention to Northern Ireland's power-sharing Assembly, which has been suspended or de facto suspended for approximately 40% of its existence. Consequently, the focus has tended to be on the broader political issues surrounding the Assembly rather than its day-to-day functions as a legislature. This book aims to fill this gap by examining how the Assembly fulfills the four core functions of a legislature: representation, linkage, scrutiny, and policy-making.

To achieve this, the book employs Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) as the primary unit of analysis. It explores various aspects of MLA representation, including who MLAs represent, how they represent their constituents, their approach to cultivating links with constituents, their use of parliamentary scrutiny tools, and their contribution to law-making.

The book is grounded in original data sourced from elite interviews, surveys, parliamentary questions, legislation, and the Official Report of parliamentary proceedings. This data provides a comprehensive and empirical basis for the analysis, allowing readers to assess whether the Assembly's (often poor) reputations align with empirical realities.

This book contributes to ongoing debates in the legislative studies and consociational power-sharing literatures. It will be of interest to students and scholars of parliaments, devolution, and Northern Ireland politics, as it offers valuable insights into the workings of a power-sharing Assembly and its impact on the political landscape of Northern Ireland.

Weight: 490g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367366568