Democracy in Northern Ireland is distorted by entrenching the rights of minorities and entrenching the sharing of power. The Belfast Peace Agreement can however claim one major success – after many years of terrorism it brought some stability to Northern Ireland and drastically reduced the number of terrorist acts. This was critical. As a result Ulster is now in a position for democracy to be developed. At some time in the future the democratic fault lines will become apparent. Because of power sharing there is no way for the will of the people to be fully exercised. Minorities have to be protected, but that protection has to be with the consent of the majority and there has to be some mechanism by which ultimately the majority can exercise their will. By giving a minority effective control in particular areas, at some point, the majority will rise against what is being done.
Over a period of time the blocking mechanisms in the Northern Ireland Assembly should be reduced, eventually to zero, to bring Northern Ireland into line with normal democracy.
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