Northern Ireland Public Administration in Transition

Abstract

Traditionally, studies of British government have rested on the “Westminster model” in which the United Kingdom is a unitary state. Increasingly, however, the model’s explanatory power has been queried. An alternative conception, the “differentiated polity model,” has been developed and seeks to reflect the longstanding diversity that has characterized the institutions of British governance. One area of public administration that illustrates this variation is the civil service. The recent process of political devolution in the United Kingdom is already encouraging pressure for even greater distinctiveness and possibly separate civil service arrangements in Scotland and Wales. With particularly distinct governmental arrangements but still within the British mold, Northern Ireland offers both a vivid illustration of the differentiated polity model and a valuable indicator of how separate civil services might unfold elsewhere in the United Kingdom.