Assess the extent to which the Northern Ireland Government was willing and able to use its extensive devolved powers to develop distinctive policies between 1921 and 1972.

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QUESTION:        Assess the extent to which the Northern Ireland Government was willing and able to use its extensive devolved powers to develop distinctive policies between 1921 and 1972.

The issue of central importance within this essay, is to show the extent to which Northern Ireland was willing and able to use its new devolved powers after 1920 as well as the extent to which these powers were used.  Within Northern Ireland, the 1920 Government of Ireland Act was deemed the most important treaty that set the foundation for partition structures.  The key for working out what the Northern Ireland Government and its political structures were about could be established by analysing the main political institutions developed under the Government of Ireland Act.  The first point to make is that Stormont had institutions and a Parliament.  In terms of institutional structures what developed from the Act were the Stormont Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly.  The Senate was equivalent to the House of Lords and the structure of the Assembly was similar to that of the House of Commons.  Thus, ‘the new arrangements established a bicameral legislature, and a subordinate government in Belfast with authority over a number of devolved powers, including policing, education, local government and social services.’

The subsequent relationship between Westminster and Stormont was that during this period Stormont was subjective to Westminster, Northern Ireland was a miniature Westminster, referred to as the Westminster Model.  ‘The politico-administrative system in Northern Ireland was thus modelled on that of Britain, however, the nature of politics in the two parts was quite different.’  Unionists were mainly involved in Northern Ireland, ‘since Protestants remained Unionists and Catholics were nationalists the territorial partition established conditions under which the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) would win all elections for the Northern Ireland Parliament between 1920 and 1969.’  Northern Ireland consisted of  of all Nationalists and therefore of all Unionists, which was subsequently reflected in Parliament.  Thus, the basic differentiation between Unionists and Nationalists was therefore reflected in Parliament.  The UUP were the dominant Unionist Party, which represented the Unionist population.

In respect to devolved powers, it is important to answer the initial question in respect to the issue of what Stormont was actually allowed to do.  These functions can be referred to as the ‘excepted’, ‘transferred’ and ‘reserved’ powers.  According to the Northern Ireland government website these can be referred to as ‘excepted and reserved matters: the Secretary of the State for Northern Ireland remains responsible for Northern Ireland Office matters not devolved to the Assembly.  These include matters such as policing, security policy, prisons, criminal justice, international relations, taxation, national insurance, regulation of financial services and the regulation of telecommunications and broadcasting.  The Secretary of State will represent Northern Ireland’s interests in the United Kingdom Cabinet.’  Those most highlighted in devolved powers were transferred powers, which meant those powers that were transferred to Belfast by Westminster by which the Northern Ireland Government were to put to use.  It can therefore be established that Britain retained overall control over Northern Ireland but left the day-to-day administration with the Northern Ireland Government.

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It can be argued that the British government generally felt that the devolved arrangements that had been set in place meant that it could adopt a ‘hands-off’ approach to Northern Ireland and its problems.  This was also typified by the proposal for the abolition of STV proportional representation for elections within Northern Ireland.  Subsequently the abolition of proportional representation for elections was replaced by ‘first-past-the-post’ systems in Northern Ireland.  This then established the nature of the relationship between the two governments and the two Parliaments for the next forty years.  Hence the relationship between the two Parliaments and the ...

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