In this book, Richard Rose addresses Northern Ireland's most serious problem -- the absence of a civil government, with or without consensus. According to Rose, Northern Ireland lacks two of the basic attributes of the modern state: a constitution and a security organization with an effective claim to a monopoly of force. In most countries where elections are held, they decide who governs; but in Northern Ireland, elections are about how the country should be governed or whether it should be governed at all. - Back cover.