The DUP’s post-Agreement gains came from mobilizing apathetic unionists, not attracting new voters.
Evidence
According to Tonge and Evans (2005), the DUP’s post-Good Friday Agreement electoral success has largely been due to the party’s ability to re-engage a unionist electorate that has displayed considerable apathy, rather than attract new votes. This has been a remarkable achievement of political mobilization, given post-Agreement unionist alienation from politics (Mac Ginty, 2004, pp. 87–99). — Cathy Gormley-Heenan and Roger Macginty, Ethnic Outbidding and Party…, 93
Categorization
- XREF: Directly relevant to the threatened-privilege research question: this is mobilization of an alienated in-group (likely status-threatened after Catholic gains under the Agreement), connecting to the ethnic-outbidding reading purpose. — connects to: The DUP’s post-Agreement success drew on party professionalization — Cathy Gormley-Heenan and Roger Macginty, Ethnic Outbidding and Party…, 84; The DUP disciplined internal message unity for effective outbidding campaigns. — Cathy Gormley-Heenan and Roger Macginty, Ethnic Outbidding and Party…, 94
- SHARE: A crunchy empirical claim worth forwarding to anyone studying ethnic outbidding or DUP electoral strategy.
Related
- The DUP’s post-Agreement success drew on party professionalization (similarity 0.81)
- The DUP shifted from unionist vote-sharing pacts to outbidding rival unionist parties. (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- The DUP disciplined internal message unity for effective outbidding campaigns.
#corroborates(0.72) — Cathy Gormley-Heenan and Roger Macginty, Ethnic Outbidding and Party…, 94