In this book, Alan Ward has collected contributions from education, psychology, law, political science, religion, literature, and poetry in order to examine the life and mind of a community in crisis. Much has been written about the causes of conflict in Northern Ireland. Little has been said on the conflict's impact on the community. This book fills the gap by addressing not only the way violence affects daily life by also it's influence on art and culture.

Alan J. Ward combines constitutional history and political science to compare all nine of Australia's political systems, federal, state and territorial, from colonial times to the present. Guided by a model of parliamentary government drawn from comparative politics, he considers the following key topics: the selection of the government, the prime minister and cabinet; government control of the lower house; the primacy of the lower house in bicameral systems; the head of state; the influence of Australian federalism on parliamentary government; and the growth of executive democracy in Australia. Ultimately, Ward argues that as only one of Australia's nine constitutions accurately describes parliamentary government as practiced in the country, it is a democratic imperative that the other eight be rewritten.