Sinn Féin - en studie av ett politiskt partis legitimitet ur medborgarnas synvinkel
The purpose of this essay is to study the republican and socialist Northern Ireland political party Sinn Féin and to examine its legitimacy in the eyes of the citizens of Northern Ireland. Is it possible to have a political agenda that includes violence and still maintain legitimacy? The Irish Republican Army?s (IRA) military struggle was for a long time a part of the party?s political agenda. This strategy has been described as to have a ballot paper in one hand and an Armalite in the other, and successfully made Sinn Féin one of the province?s largest political parties. I have examined the time period from 1989 to present time. My concept of legitimacy is based on a theory by the political scientist Mikael Axberg, who describes legitimacy to be a concept that contains three different parts: a legal, a democratic and a sociological perspective. Methodically this essay is both a qualitative and quantitative study. The main question of the essay is:?Can Sinn Féin be considered to be a political party of a legitimate foundation in the eyes of the citizens??. In order to examine this question I have used three sub questions:1) Is Sinn Féin, from a legal understanding of legitimacy, a legitimate party?2) Is Sinn Féin, from a democratic understanding of legitimacy, a legitimate party?3) Is Sinn Féin, from a sociological understanding of legitimacy, a legitimate party?Of course this is not the only way to understand legitimacy and approach this problem, but it is the way I find most useful in order to answer the question. The sub questions have a wide range and include three different perspectives, which provides a good foundation for answering the main question of the essay.The essay comes to the conclusion that Sinn Féin is a legitimate party in the eyes of the citizens, if the polarisation of the society is considered. Catholic and protestant citizens have very different views on the legitimacy of Sinn Féin. The essay concludes that if a society is as polarised as Northern Ireland, that has to be taken into account when questions of legitimacy are examined.