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Politics and government of
Northern IrelandThe Northern Ireland Executive is the executive arm of the Northern Ireland Assembly, the devolved legislature for Northern Ireland. It is answerable to the Assembly and was established according to the terms of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. It is referred to in the legislation as the Executive Committee of the Assembly.
The executive consists of a First Minister and deputy First Minister (a diarchy) and various ministers with individual portfolios and remits. The Assembly elects the members of the Executive. It is one of three devolved governments in the United Kingdom, the others being the Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly Government.
In contrast with Westminster System cabinets, which generally need only be backed by a majority of legislators, ministerial positions in the Northern Ireland Executive are allocated to all of those parties with significant representation in the Assembly. The number of ministries to which each party is entitled is determined by the D'Hondt system. In effect, major parties cannot be excluded from participation in government, and power-sharing is enforced by the system. The Executive can not function if either of the two largest parties refuse to take part, as these parties are allocated the First Minister and deputy First Minister positions. However, other parties are not required to enter the Executive even if they are entitled to do so; instead, they can choose to go into opposition if they wish. There were some calls for the Social Democratic and Labour Party and Ulster Unionist Party to do just this after the 2007 Assembly elections[1], but ultimately the two parties chose to take the seats in the Executive to which they were entitled.
