Tactical Democracy: Brexit and Voting in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland continues to grapple with its post‐conflict past. But the 2019 United Kingdom General Election created new discussions about how voters in Northern Ireland would respond to the future and the UK's exit from the European Union (Brexit). Voters responded to Brexit's negative local consequences in the 2019 general election. Based on ethnographic fieldwork during the campaign in South Belfast, this article explores how people vote and what their votes mean. It examines how voters in the South Belfast constituency shifted their voting patterns as a response to Brexit as a critical event. I term this change tactical democracy . Unlike tactical voting, tactical democracy creates new forms of political collaboration and cross‐cutting coalitions that persist beyond elections. Tactical democracy is both deeper than voting pacts and more durable than momentary cross‐party voting. In post‐Agreement Northern Ireland, some scholars argue that consociational arrangements prevent cross‐party coalitions around issues, and orient party politics toward Northern Ireland's constitutional status. Following Veena Das, this article argues that Brexit provided a critical event that enabled the development of different, deeper alliances. Thus, the tactical democracy's new collaborations are both a response to political challenges and a reconfiguration of relationships.