Michael Marsh is Head of the Department of Political Science and a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. He is the author of a wide variety of articles on parties and electoral behaviour which have appeared in books and journals published in Europe and the United States. His co-edited books include Candidate Selection in Comparative Perspective: The Secret Garden of Politics (London, 1988) and Modern Irish Democracy (Dublin, 1993). Paul Mitchell is a lecturer in politics at the Queen's University, Belfast. He has published a range of articles and chapters on coalition politics and party competition as well as conflict regulation in ethnically divided societies. A book he co-edited (with Rick Wilford), Politics in Northern Ireland, was recently published by Westview Press. Paul Mitchell is lecturer in politics at the Queen's University, Belfast. The author of a wide range of articles and chapters in the fields of political competition in parliamentary democracies and competition and conflict regulation in ethnically divided societies, he is currently coediting the forthcoming How Ireland Voted 1997. Rick Wilford is reader in politics at Queen's University, Belfast. His most recent books include the jointly authored Women and Political Participation in Northern Ireland (1996) and the coedited Women, Ethnicity, and Nationalism: The Politics of Transition (1998). He is also the joint contributing editor of the forthcoming book, Contesting Politics: Women in Ireland, North and South.

• Preface -- The Past in the Present -- Political Violence and the Paramilitaries -- Segmentation and the Social Structure -- The Electoral Systems -- The Party System and Party Competition -- Regional Assemblies and Parliament -- Policymaking -- Policing and Security -- Women and Politics -- Northern Ireland and the Republic -- Anglo-Irish Relations and Constitutional Policy -- “Futures” -- Epilogue

Michael Marsh is Head of the Department of Political Science and a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. He is the author of a wide variety of articles on parties and electoral behaviour which have appeared in books and journals published in Europe and the United States. His co-edited books include Candidate Selection in Comparative Perspective: The Secret Garden of Politics (London, 1988) and Modern Irish Democracy (Dublin, 1993). Paul Mitchell is a lecturer in politics at the Queen's University, Belfast. He has published a range of articles and chapters on coalition politics and party competition as well as conflict regulation in ethnically divided societies. A book he co-edited (with Rick Wilford), Politics in Northern Ireland, was recently published by Westview Press. Paul Mitchell is lecturer in politics at the Queen's University, Belfast. The author of a wide range of articles and chapters in the fields of political competition in parliamentary democracies and competition and conflict regulation in ethnically divided societies, he is currently coediting the forthcoming How Ireland Voted 1997. Rick Wilford is reader in politics at Queen's University, Belfast. His most recent books include the jointly authored Women and Political Participation in Northern Ireland (1996) and the coedited Women, Ethnicity, and Nationalism: The Politics of Transition (1998). He is also the joint contributing editor of the forthcoming book, Contesting Politics: Women in Ireland, North and South.

• Preface -- The Past in the Present -- Political Violence and the Paramilitaries -- Segmentation and the Social Structure -- The Electoral Systems -- The Party System and Party Competition -- Regional Assemblies and Parliament -- Policymaking -- Policing and Security -- Women and Politics -- Northern Ireland and the Republic -- Anglo-Irish Relations and Constitutional Policy -- “Futures” -- Epilogue