Immerse yourself in a thought-provoking seminar series as we reflect on the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement's 25th anniversary. Our academic presenters will share insights from their areas of expertise and explore key themes, including power-sharing, the economy, reconciliation, rights, and gender. This episode comes from Dr Sean Haughey, University of Liverpool and Dr Jamie Pow, Queen’s University Belfast looking at their work on “A deliberative forum on possible reforms to power-sharing”.
Twenty-five years after the signing of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, debate emerges about the future of the power-sharing institutions established under the Agreement. This presentation reports on the findings of a small-scale citizens' assembly – a deliberative forum – which brought together a broadly representative sample of people from across Northern Ireland, to ascertain citizens' views on: maintaining the current power-sharing system; replacing the present system with a government formation system based purely on negotiation between political parties; or, replacing the current system with a government formation system based on both negotiation and cross-community inclusion. The findings assist in better understanding public attitudes towards the status quo and potential alternative government formation models. Importantly, they shed light on the reasons behind these attitudes and the process by which any potential reform(s) could come about.