Our democracy is facing significant challenges.
Almost three decades after the Good Friday Agreement, our political institutions remain fragile, public trust in government is weak, and our politics continues to struggle to move beyond the divisions of the past.
The institutions may be standing, but that should not be confused with a healthy or functioning democracy.
More than two and a half years after restoration, the Executive has so far failed to agree a Budget, despite the enormous pressures facing our public services. The current mandate has also been characterised by repeated attempts to remove Ministers from office, with Executive parties increasingly directing their energies towards disputes with one another rather than the collective responsibilities of government.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland is experiencing a major crisis of democratic confidence. Research by Carnegie UK has found that democratic wellbeing here is the lowest of any UK jurisdiction, with almost half of respondents reporting low trust in the Executive.
The events at Garvaghy Road have exposed another dimension to our politics. Almost thirty years after the Good Friday Agreement, its re-emergence has demonstrated how much hurt and mistrust remain beneath the surface of our society. How quickly old divisions can re-emerge, and how easily our politics can become consumed by the conflicts of the past.
These crises may appear distinct, but they are related. We have established institutions capable of accommodating our divisions, but have struggled to develop the political culture and collective purpose needed to move beyond them. Invariably, parties enter government without agreement on what they intend to achieve together. Weak delivery then erodes confidence in politics, while elections continue to revolve around communal representation rather than competing programmes for government.
The Good Friday Agreement established the foundations for peace, partnership, equality and democratic government. But peace was always only meant to be the beginning. The original political settlement was necessarily focused on ending conflict, protecting competing identities and ensuring that power could be shared.
The next stage of our politics requires a new social contract based on prioritising not simply partisan interest: one built on true partnership, but capable of rebuilding public trust, democratic accountability and a shared programme of progress.
For the SDLP, this is an essential part of building the case for a New Ireland.
An ambition to build a New Ireland will be best enabled by a willingness to demonstrate that a different kind of politics is possible today. If we cannot transform failing public services, resolve our infrastructure challenges or improve the institutions we already have, it becomes harder to convince people that we have the capacity to manage the much greater challenge of building a new state.
Reforming Northern Ireland's institutions is not an alternative to preparing for constitutional change. It is part of demonstrating the political leadership, capacity for cooperation and commitment to effective government upon which a new constitutional future would depend.
That requires us to change the lens through which we look at the process of reform. It should not be an isolated moment in time, negotiated in response to the latest political crisis or institutional collapse. It should be a continuous process of strengthening government, improving democratic accountability and allowing our institutions to evolve alongside the society they serve.
That ambition cannot be confined to Stormont. Rebuilding trust in democracy also requires us to examine how power is shared more widely across society, giving people and communities greater influence over the decisions, resources and services which shape their futures.
The SDLP proposes three connected stages of reform: immediate legislative changes; a structured examination of further reforms during the next mandate; and an open, longer-term debate about the evolution of power-sharing.
These should not be viewed as three separate exercises, nor a fixed blueprint for the future. They represent different stages in a continuing process of democratic development.
The British and Irish Governments both have an important role in supporting that process. Their engagement should not be confined to periods of institutional collapse and restoration.
Our immediate task is to make the institutions work better. Our longer-term ambition must be to build a politics capable of earning the trust of the people it serves.
The SDLP believes we can build better politics:
In the short term, with four modest, targeted changes to reinforce partnership at the top of government, protect the Assembly from one-party obstruction and remove additional Executive veto mechanisms.
In the medium term, through a wider examination of how our institutions could operate more effectively, including stronger democratic accountability, an enhanced role for the Official Opposition, a greater focus on Programme for Government outcomes at Executive formation and greater local democratic power. We also propose the relocation of the Northern Ireland Assembly from Stormont to a modern, accessible location in central Belfast, bringing democratic decision-making closer to the people it serves.
In the long term, through consideration of how Northern Ireland can move towards a more normalised democracy, where political competition is increasingly shaped by competing programmes for government.
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