Northern Ireland Assembly

<p>Northern Ireland’s power- sharing Assembly is understudied in the legislative studies literature. Having been suspended (or de facto suspended) for around 40% of its existence conversation has tended to focus more on the wider political problems in which the Assembly has been enmeshed and less on its day-to-day functions as a legislature.</p><p>This book is the first to examine how the Assembly fulfils the four core functions of a legislature: representation linkage scrutiny and policy- making. Using Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) as the primary unit of analysis the book explores: who and how MLAs represent; their approach to cultivating links with constituents; their use of parliamentary scrutiny tools; and their contribution to law- making. The book grounds its analysis in original data sourced from elite interviews surveys parliamentary questions legislation and the <i>Official Report </i>of parliamentary proceedings. Readers will therefore be able to reflect on whether the Assembly’s (often poor) reputations comport with empirical realities.</p><p>This book contributes to debates in the legislative studies and consociational power- sharing literatures and will be of interest to students and scholars of parliaments devolution and Northern Ireland politics.</p>