From Outsiders to the Mainstream: A comparative evaluation of Sinn Féin as an all-island party since the Great Recession

该项目着手对新芬党进行全岛研究，将其在爱尔兰共和国和北方尔兰的业务进行比较。这将在一个框架内实现，该框架有助于与爱尔兰岛上的其他政党以及国际上类似的反制度政党进行比较。本项目旨在探讨SF作为全岛选举力量的演变，对其政党身份的影响，以及其党内民主的运作，这可能有助于我们更好地了解这个不寻常的政党如何成为两个不同司法管辖区的重要选举参与者。这项研究很重要，因为一个统一的爱尔兰是SF的中心目标，是其活动家基础的政策趋同领域。因此，在爱尔兰边境两侧的政府中，SF将对北爱尔兰和平进程、联合王国的完整性、欧盟内部政治、欧洲边界产生明显的影响，并对其他欧洲国家的民族主义运动产生潜在的影响。爱尔兰统一是一个合法的民主目标，但政策制定者和学术界需要更好地了解SF，以帮助为欧洲内部新的宪法解决方案的潜力做好准备。SF与爱尔兰临时共和军的联系及其对北爱尔兰政治机构的逐渐接受一直是迄今为止许多政治奖学金的焦点。然而，这种对政治暴力和宪法正常化的关注意味着SF不断演变的政党身份和党内结构仍然没有得到充分的探索。此外，SF在ROI中的重要性日益增加，这对其政党身份和决策的影响仍然没有得到充分的理解。该项目将通过使用与关键政治人物的半结构化访谈、社交网络分析、政党宣言数据、政策文件、选举数据和民意调查数据来弥补我们知识中的这一差距。

This project sets out to develop an all-island study of Sinn Féin (SF) which compares its operations in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) to Northern Ireland (NI). This will be achieved within a framework that aids comparison to other political parties on the island of Ireland and with similar anti-systemic parties internationally. This project aims to explore the evolution of SF as an all-island electoral force, the impact this has had on its party identity, and the workings of its intra-party democracy, which may help us to better understand how this unusual party has become a significant electoral player in two separate jurisdictions. This research matters because a United Ireland is the central aim of SF, an area of policy convergence for its activist base. Therefore, SF in government both sides of the Irish border will have obvious implications for the NI peace process, the integrity of the United Kingdom, internal European Union politics, European borders, and have potential ramifications for nationalist movements in other European countries. Irish unification is a legitimate democratic aim, but policymakers and the academic community need to better understand SF, in order to help prepare for the potential of new constitutional settlements within Europe. SF's links to the Provisional Irish Republican Army and its gradual acceptance of NI's political institutions has been the focus of much political scholarship to date. However, this focus on political violence and constitutional normalisation has meant that SF's evolving party identity and intra-party structures remain underexplored. In addition, the increasing importance of SF in the ROI and the impact this has had on its party identity and decision-making remains inadequately understood. This project will rectify this gap in our knowledge through the use of semi-structured interviews with key political actors, social network analysis, party manifesto data, policy documents, electoral data, and opinion survey data.