Beyond the Sectarian Divide: The Social Bases and Political Consequences of Nationalist and Unionist Party Competition in Northern Ireland

Abstract

The Northern Irish party system is plausibly represented as two systems, in which party competition occurs within nationalist and unionist blocs. Social and ideological divisions within these blocs constrain parties' electoral strategies and thus facilitate or inhibit cross-communal compromise. Using Northern Irish Social Attitudes data, various accounts of these intra-communal divisions are tested and their political implications assessed. Contrary to expectations concerning the effects of cross-communal contact, neighbourhood integration is found to have no relationship with partisanship although, consistent with political socialization theory, young people on both sides of the divide are more likely than those who are older to support the more recently introduced parties. Most significantly, however, there are noticeable asymmetries in the patterns of cleavage within the unionist and nationalist blocs. Among Protestants, left–right ideology has a far stronger impact than constitutional position on patterns of partisanship; and social class has considerably stronger effects than does denomination. Most Protestants, whatever their partisanship, also express strongly unionist constitutional preferences. In clear contrast, on the nationalist side party support is polarized along constitutional lines, there is no cross-cutting ideological division over economic inequality, and a majority of Catholics adopt a moderate stance on nationalism. It is argued in consequence, that within the unionist bloc the pattern of intra-communal party competition militates against constitutional compromise as a solution to ‘the troubles’, whereas among nationalists the unidimensional structure of competition for electoral support and the distribution of attitudes towards the constitutional issue are likely to have influenced the adoption of compromise strategies by Sinn Féin.