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The Northern Ireland Political Parties

Changing party strategies since 1998

  • 3 things to know
  • AS Unit 1

Overview

Argument that Sinn Féin's shift is tactical rather than fundamental and argument that Sinn Féin's shift is genuine.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Numbers

How have parties' strategies on social issues changed since 1998?

Key term

Why is the language of the constitutional debate itself changing?

Evaluation

What is the argument that Sinn Féin's shift is genuine?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Summarise how the DUP's strategy changed between 1998 and 2007.

    Model answer

    The DUP moved from outright opposition to the Agreement and refusal to sit with Sinn Féin in 1998, to negotiating amendments at St Andrews and taking the office of First Minister in a power-sharing government in 2007.

  2. 2

    What did the DUP claim it had achieved to justify that change?

    Model answer

    The DUP argued that IRA decommissioning, Sinn Féin's endorsement of policing and the changes made at St Andrews to accountability and the Ministerial Code had produced a fundamentally different settlement from that of 1998.

  3. 3

    How did Sinn Féin's strategy change between 1998 and 2007?

    Model answer

    Sinn Féin moved from a movement associated with an armed campaign and abstention from the institutions of Northern Ireland to a party that supported decommissioning, endorsed policing and held the office of deputy First Minister.

  4. 4

    What is the argument that Sinn Féin's shift is tactical rather than fundamental?

    Model answer

    Critics argue that the party's objective is unchanged, that it administers British rule only as a stage towards unity, and that it continues to defend the IRA's past campaign while presenting itself as a normal party of government.

  5. 5

    What is the argument that Sinn Féin's shift is genuine?

    Model answer

    Supporters argue that a party which secured decommissioning, endorsed the police and courts, has served in government for years and now seeks unity solely through a poll conducted by consent has changed its methods in a way that cannot be reversed.

  6. 6

    How has the Ulster Unionist Party's strategy changed since 1998?

    Model answer

    The Ulster Unionist Party moved from leading unionism inside the Agreement, to competing with the DUP for the same voters, to a strategy after 2016 of official opposition and appeals to liberal and cross-community unionist opinion.

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CCoalition then became available to every party in the system.

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OFMDFM was the name used until 2016.
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