A plural society is defined as one which is ethnically diverse and whose ethnic divisions are politically relevant. Extant theories of politics in plural societies focus primarily on democratic political systems— that is, societies which, during some period of their recent political...

This article is an application to Northern Ireland of theoretical ideas about ethnic politics. Four sets of ideas are relevant: (1) the theory developed by Rabushka and Shepsle (1972); (2) "pluralist" theory, developed by a number of scholars; (3) "consociational democracy," developed by...