Beyond Unionism and Nationalism in Northern Ireland: Electors, Voters and Party Members, 2022

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 Northern Ireland General Election Survey, 2019 (available from the UK Data Archive under SN 8619), 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 aimed 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 involved 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, the project will achieve a far better understanding of Northern Ireland's understudied third tradition, numerically its largest but the least researched. 

The project analysed several different types of elector rejecting unionism and nationalism

a)       the non-voter who refused to participate in the electoral system because of that rejection;

b)      the voter who supported 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 voted 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. Further information is available on the UK Research and Innovation project webpage.

Main topics

• Interest in politics
• Voting intention
• Political institutions and arrangements in N Ireland
• Participation in elections
• Favourability and perception of N Ireland political parties
• Constitutional issues
• Most important issues
• Attitudes to different issues (e.g. academic transfer, same sex marriage, Irish Language Act etc.)
• Women in N Ireland politics
• Identity
• Religiosity
• Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
• Northern Ireland Political Parties