ABSTRACT
Any study of the party and electoral systems in Northern Ireland would need to concentrate on the two contrasting periods of 'BCRC' and 'ACRC' - that is, Before the Civil Rights Campaign and After the Civil Rights Campaign. The aftermath of that campaign produced a seismic shift in Northern Ireland's politics. Until the late 1960s there was a deadening predictability about election results and the health (or otherwise) of the party system. The fact of the matter was that Unionism was never under threat and that the Unionist Party had never held less than 32 of the 52 seats in the Stormont Parliament. They were assisted in their success by an electoral system which was harsh on smaller parties. Originally elections were to be conducted under the single transferable vote (STV) system of proportional representation (PR). Government had recognized the anomalies of the British model of 'first past the post' in deeply divided societies - hence the insistence initially that elections be conducted under STY in both parts of Ireland. This was felt to be a means whereby the Protestant minority in the south and the Catholic minority in the north would get more equitable representation at local and national level.
