title: Sectarian demography, territoriality and political development in Northern Ireland.
abstract: "Here we discuss, firstly, the limits of Census-based empiricism [in Northern Ireland] and the usually unacknowledged problems of data and interpretation which have resulted in a seriously misleading ¿conventional wisdom'. Secondly, we question its sectarian terms of reference, the over-identification of religion and politics, and misconceptions of ethnicity.... Thirdly, we focus on some of the flawed policy ¿solutions' associated with empiricism and sectarianism, including ¿internal' power-sharing and ¿consociational' strategies for political development."
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D001519:Behavior; D019352:Censuses; D003469:Culture; D003710:Demography; D019049:Developed Countries; D005006:Ethnicity; D005060:Europe; D009660:Northern Ireland; D011057:Politics; D011153:Population; D011154:Population Characteristics; D011584:Psychology; D011639:Public Opinion; D011640:Public Policy; D012067:Religion; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012106:Research; D012107:Research Design; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: Attitude; Behavior; Census; Census Methods; Cultural Background; Data Analysis; Data Quality; Demographic Factors; Developed Countries; Ethnic Groups; Europe; Measurement; Northern Europe; Northern Ireland; Policy; Political Factors; Population; Population Characteristics; Population Statistics; Psychological Factors; Public Opinion; Reliability; Religion; Research Methodology; United Kingdom