CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2007
| Author | Stanescu, Ciprian Alexandru |
|---|---|
| Title | Political and Social Sustainability of Consociational Governance in Northern Ireland |
| Summary | The Thesis deals with the political and social sustainability of the present political system in Northern Ireland. By assessing the factors that influence this, the Thesis regards the consociational system in place in Northern Ireland as being sustainable, given certain significant points. The first regards the political behavior of the four parties in the power-sharing system (the Democratic Unionist Party, Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionist Party and the Social Democratic and Labour Party); in a game theory assessment of political cooperation, it is showed that cooperating produces better results than defecting, for any of the given parties. The incentives for cooperation, and the present political, security and social environment offer the necessary conditions for a sustainable consociational system from a political point of view. The second type of factor to influence Northern Ireland’s political system is represented by the external actors. The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, through cooperation amongst themselves, and economic and political influence (“consoc iationalism-imp osed” policies) in Northern Ireland, represent important guaranties of political and social sustainability. If the consociational system works at a political level, then, at community level, antagonism should soften in a given period of time, as a result of government policies, the cooperation model that they present and internal initiatives. The final chapter analyses all these factors, concluding that much work is still needed in cross-community relations, in a society still divided and where current prejudices and intolerance can produce negative effects. |
| Supervisor | Pelinka, Anton |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2007/stanescu_ciprian.pdf |
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