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Beyond Unionism and Nationalism in Northern Ireland: Electors, Voters and Party Members

北爱尔兰的统一主义和民族主义之外：选举人、选民和党员

基本信息

批准号：
ES/V014072/1
负责人：
Jonathan Tonge
金额：
$ 56.3万
依托单位：
University of Liverpool
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2021
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2021 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FV014072%2F1
关键词：
Beyond Unionism Nationalism Northern Ireland

项目摘要

Politics in Northern Ireland has always been framed upon unionist versus nationalist divisions. Power-sharing between unionists and nationalists is mandatory in the devolved Executive and Assembly. Yet, according to the 2019 ESRC Northern Ireland election study, 40% of Northern Ireland's electors say they are neither unionist nor nationalist, compared to only 27% identifying as unionist and 25% as nationalist. Despite this, remarkably little is known about those 'neithers', in terms of who they are, why they reject unionism and nationalism, their reasons for voting or abstaining, and the depth of their backing for non-unionist and non-nationalist parties. This project aims to rectify these knowledge gaps by surveying those electors who identify as neither unionist nor nationalist and undertaking a membership study of the main representatives of the non-aligned grouping, the Alliance Party, the only non-aligned party represented in Northern Ireland's government. The project involves an extensive demographic and attitudinal survey of a) electors declaring they are neither unionist or nationalist, to understand their background and their rationale and b) to examine the views of those committed to the rejection of unionism and nationalism within the largest party, Alliance, not aligned to either unionism or nationalism, via a survey of the entire party membership to which the party has agreed.By analysing the demography and views of non-voters, voters and party members who eschew unionism and nationalism, we will achieve a far better understanding of Northern Ireland's understudied third tradition, numerically its largest but the least researched. We will analyse several different types of elector rejecting unionism and nationalism: a) the non-voter who refuses to participate in the electoral system because of that rejection. b) the voter who supports Alliance, or other smaller non-unionist/non-nationalist parties, e.g. the Greens, because they are neither unionist or nationalist and/or because they back the policies of that particular party; c) the non-unionist and non-nationalist voter who nonetheless votes for a unionist or nationalist party for various reasons, such as tactical or lower preference voting. d) the committed rejectionists of the existing unionist v nationalist binary within Alliance's membership, assessing how the party attempts to either i) accommodate compromises between unionists and nationalists or ii) overcome Northern Ireland's divisions iii) understand what ethnic-blind policies, to diminish sectarian divisions, are backed by party members. This is an important project because: a) we need to understand how non-ethnic electors and party members view the ethnic party system in which they are asked to participate. b) Northern Ireland's centre ground is large and unlikely to disappear. Alliance saw its vote share increase by 11% and 9% respectively in the 2019 European and Westminster elections. The party's vote shares in those contests, of 19% (European)and 17% (Westminster) represented record highs for the party. Alliance has risen to become Northern Ireland's third-best supported party, behind only the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin.c) non-unionist and non-nationalist electors are the 'swing' voters who need to be won by unionists or nationalists in any future border poll on Northern Ireland's constitutional future, permitted under the Good Friday Agreement.d) little is known about the centre ground and its main party. There has been no book-length academic study of electors or parties outside Northern Ireland's two main traditions, only a solitary activist's volume on Alliance and only three journal articles dedicated to the organisation. This dearth of material highlights a wider research problem: that the focus upon ethnically divided societies is mainly their ethnic parties, not organisations beyond the sectarian divide.

北方爱尔兰的政治一直被框定在统一主义者对民族主义者的分歧上。在权力下放的行政部门和议会中，统一派和民族主义者必须分享权力。然而，根据2019年ESRC北方爱尔兰选举研究，40%的北方爱尔兰选民表示他们既不是统一主义者也不是民族主义者，而只有27%的人认为自己是统一主义者，25%的人认为自己是民族主义者。尽管如此，人们对这些“两者都不是”的人知之甚少，比如他们是谁，为什么他们拒绝工会主义和民族主义，他们投票或弃权的原因，以及他们对非工会主义和非民族主义政党的支持程度。该项目旨在通过调查那些既不认为自己是统一主义者也不认为自己是民族主义者的选民，并对不结盟集团的主要代表-联盟党-进行成员资格研究，以弥补这些知识差距，联盟党是北方爱尔兰政府中唯一的不结盟政党。该项目涉及对以下方面进行广泛的人口和态度调查：（a）宣布自己既不是工会主义者也不是民族主义者的选民，以了解他们的背景和理由;（B）审查最大政党联盟内部那些致力于反对工会主义和民族主义的人的观点，因为他们既不支持工会主义，也不支持民族主义，通过对该党同意的全体党员的调查。通过分析非选民、选民和回避工会主义和民族主义的党员的人口统计和观点，我们将更好地了解北方爱尔兰未被充分研究的第三种传统，它在数量上是最大的，但研究得最少。我们将分析几种不同类型的拒绝工会主义和民族主义的选民：a）由于这种拒绝而拒绝参加选举制度的非选民。B）支持联盟党或其他较小的非统一主义/非民族主义政党的选民，例如绿党，因为他们既不是统一主义者也不是民族主义者，并且/或者因为他们支持该特定政党的政策; c）出于各种原因，例如战术或较低偏好投票，仍然投票给统一主义或民族主义政党的非统一主义和非民族主义选民。d）联盟成员中现有统一主义者对民族主义者二元对立的坚定拒绝者，评估该党如何试图i）适应统一主义者和民族主义者之间的妥协，或ii）克服北方爱尔兰的分歧iii）了解党员支持的种族盲目政策，以减少宗派分歧。这是一个重要的项目，因为：a）我们需要了解非族裔选民和党员如何看待他们被要求参加的族裔政党制度。B）北方爱尔兰的中心地带很大，不太可能消失。在2019年欧洲和威斯敏斯特选举中，联盟的选票份额分别增加了11%和9%。该党在这些选举中的得票率为19%（欧洲）和17%（威斯敏斯特），创历史新高。联盟党已经成为北方爱尔兰第三大受支持的政党，仅次于民主统一党和新芬党。c）非统一主义者和非民族主义者的选民是“摇摆不定”的选民，他们需要在未来关于北方爱尔兰宪法未来的任何边境投票中被统一主义者或民族主义者赢得，这是耶稣受难日协议所允许的。除了北方爱尔兰的两个主要传统之外，还没有关于选举人或政党的书籍长度的学术研究，只有一个单独的活动家关于联盟的卷，只有三篇期刊文章致力于该组织。这种材料的缺乏突出了一个更广泛的研究问题：对种族分裂社会的关注主要是他们的种族政党，而不是超越宗派分歧的组织。