Editing Politics of the United Kingdom (section)

====Northern Ireland Assembly====
{{Main|Northern Ireland Assembly}}
[[File:Stormont Parliamentary Building 01.JPG|thumb|left|250px|[[Parliament Buildings (Northern Ireland)|Parliament Buildings]] in [[Stormont, Belfast]], seat of the [[Northern Ireland Assembly]].]]
The government of Northern Ireland was established as a result of the 1998 [[Good Friday Agreement]]. This created the [[Northern Ireland Assembly]]. The Assembly is a unicameral body consisting of 90 members elected under the [[single transferable vote]] form of [[proportional representation]]. The Assembly is based on the principle of power-sharing, in order to ensure that both communities in Northern Ireland, [[Unionists (Ireland)|unionist]] and [[Irish nationalism|nationalist]], participate in governing the region. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas and to elect the [[Northern Ireland Executive]] (cabinet). It sits at [[Parliament Buildings (Northern Ireland)|Parliament Buildings]] at Stormont in [[Belfast]].

The Assembly has authority to legislate in a field of competences known as "transferred matters". These matters are not explicitly enumerated in the [[Northern Ireland Act 1998]] but instead include any competence not explicitly retained by the Parliament at Westminster. Powers reserved by Westminster are divided into "excepted matters", which it retains indefinitely, and "reserved matters", which may be transferred to the competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly at a future date. Health, criminal law and education are "transferred" while royal relations are all "excepted".

While the Assembly was in suspension, due to issues involving the main parties and the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (IRA), its legislative powers were exercised by the UK government, which effectively had power to legislate by decree. Laws that would normally be within the competence of the Assembly were passed by the UK government in the form of [[Orders-in-Council]] rather than legislative acts.
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There has been a significant decrease in violence over the last twenty years, though the situation remains tense, with the more hard-line parties such as [[Sinn Féin]] and the [[Democratic Unionist Party]] now holding the most parliamentary seats (see [[Demographics and politics of Northern Ireland]]).