Theresa May’s Government and the Northern Ireland Issue : Brexit as the end of the consociational and postnational illusions

Abstract

The Northern Irish component of the Brexit issue Theresa May’s government is confronted with reveals two inter-related aspects of what could be called the Good Friday Agreement’s democratic deficit. As a comprehensive settlement, the Good Friday Agreement’s objective was to establish new institutions in Ireland, taking into account the « totality of relationships » in order to obtain the consent of all major actors in the conflict. To do so, it drew its inspiration from two theoretical models of democracy, post-national and consociational, but these two forms of democratic changes implemented through the GFA have proved to be far from sufficient to actually transform the Northern Irish question. The ongoing controversy on the future status of Northern Ireland and the Irish Border post-Brexit shows that the island of Ireland has remained a highly contested democratic space. The consociational power-sharing institutions established in Northern Ireland in 1998 and the limited post-national innovations contained in the GFA have had very little or no transformative impact. This double democratic deficit of the GFA is an obstacle to any possible Brexit deal Theresa May’s government could negociate with Brussels.