Political-attitudes, partisanship and social-structures in northern-ireland

Abstract

Abstract: This paper applies multivariate analysis to 1978 survey data to examine the attitude structure of the Northern Ireland electorate and its effect on partisanship. Four political attitudes are extracted: two communal attitudes, strongly related to religious affiliation, and two non-communal attitudes, unrelated to religious affiliation. All four attitudes are found to be weakly embedded in the social structure. When used to predict partisan loyalties, the four political attitudes have a consistent, if limited, significance. In addition, analysis shows that individuals who support the Alliance Party are more likely to reject the dominant attitudes and loyalties of their co-religionists.