ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the characteristics of conflict management. It begins by defining plural societies before analysing debates around conflict management, focusing on that between consociationalism and centripetalism. As the research is based on determining whether consociational power sharing has the ability to overcome identities, it is important to consider the alternatives that exist. The chapter discusses the origins of consociationalism in Northern Ireland and analyses the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement. It then considers consociational debates specific to Northern Ireland and focuses on criticisms from scholars, such as that by recognising and accommodating unionists and nationalists, the Good Friday Agreement entrenches sectarianism and is not facilitating peace as it was intended to. The chapter also discusses constitutional issues in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement – for example, amendments to it from the St Andrews Agreement (2006), inter-group interaction between political elites, and the continued threat of dissident republicanism to disrupt the peace process. It concludes by arguing that only an accommodative approach to conflict management that recognises different groups has any potential of succeeding in divided societies, as groups are unlikely to agree on a settlement that does not recognise their legitimacy. It also argues that in facilitating elite-level cooperation, consociational power sharing may offer the potential for a genuinely shared identity to be achieved by this interaction trickling down to wider society.
