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ABSTRACT
This paper examines the case for progressive unionism in Northern Ireland today. The paper locates the progressive currents within unionism and explains the forces that have frustrated their development. It contends that analysis of the leadership provided by unionists in civil society and the attitudinal profile of the pro-union electorate nonetheless signals the existence of space to cultivate more progressive forms of unionism. This challenges the largely negative appraisals of unionism in popular discourse. Unionism is shown to possess a diversity and potential that is often unrecognised. The paper therefore promotes a more sophisticated understanding of unionism and its possible political futures.
Data
Both the NILT, NIAE and NIGES surveys are publicly available.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 I chose these commentators as they often provide some of the more nuanced analysis of unionism in Northern Ireland. Yet, as these quotes show, their framing of unionism at times embraces negative generalisations. Such generalisations stand in the way of a developed understanding of unionism and its potential.
2 Ideological currents are understood to be combinations of ideological elements. The patterning of these currents forms discourses, which produce regularities that are described in the paper as ideological tendencies. Ideological formations are therefore taken to contain tendencies that are the product of currents forming discourses that arise from the articulation of elements. More details can be found below and in Ramos (Citation1982).
3 Following Mouffe (Citation2000) political practices are taken to be any practice that seeks to influence ‘the ensemble of practices, discourses and institutions which seek to establish a certain order and organise human coexistence’.
4 Following the United Nations (Citation2016), social inclusion is defined as ‘the process of improving the terms of participation in society for people who are disadvantaged on the basis of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion, or economic or other status, through enhanced opportunities, access to resources, voice and respect for rights’. In the context of Northern Ireland, this may be understood as furthering the commitments set out in Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act (1998).
5 Active citizenship is understood as the pursuit of those educative practices that Pateman (Citation1970) associates with participative democracy.
6 Although somewhat idiosyncratic, my use of tendency here is not entirely dissimilar to Miliband’s (Citation1985) use of the term ‘to denote a spectrum of thought, in which are to be found many different positions and points of emphasis, put forward by people who belong to different generations, traditions, parties and movements, and who do not necessarily agree with each other on many important issues’. As Miliband continues, ‘it is precisely this diversity which’ can help ‘to obscure the degree to which the people concerned do work within an identifiable spectrum of thought’.
7 Technical notes for the NILT data can be accessed here: https://www.ark.ac.uk/ARK/nilt/datasets/technotes.html
Technical notes for the NIGES data can be accessed here: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/humanities-and-social-sciences/research/research-themes/transforming-conflict/ni-election-survey-19/
Technical notes for the NIAS data can be accessed here: https://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/the-democracy-unit/NorthernIrelandAssemblyElectionStudy2022/
8 Loyalists have referred to their own activities as progressive/civic loyalism. This paper holds that progressive/civic loyalism can be understood as an attempt to develop civic-cultural unionism as outlined above, especially given how regularly Porter’s civic unionism is invoked by loyalists to explain the ideological contours of the progressive/civic loyalist project.
9 The PUP also rejected the Alliance Party motion to limit the flying of the union flag on designated days at Belfast City Council.
10 There was no NILT data to match with that pertaining to the Assembly Election in 2011 for Table A1.
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Dean Farquhar
Dean Farquhar achieved his PhD concerning youth non-voting in Northern Ireland from the University of Liverpool in 2021. As a part-time student, Dean worked for the University’s Widening Participation and Outreach team during his research, delivering sessions on politics to young people from around the Merseyside area. Since leaving Liverpool to return to Northern Ireland, Dean has commenced a career as a youth worker. Currently, Dean is focusing on peacebuilding and promoting emotional resilience in young people. He hopes that this paper stimulates debate within and about unionism.