Ideologies and identities are central to politics, but usually this centrality is obscured. This book focuses on what it terms "the politics of identity." Drawing on both social theory and psychological theory, it develops a novel approach that highlights the unconscious rules that are drawn on, and fought over, by political actors and citizens as they construct their identities, and relationships with others. Unionism in Northern Ireland, past and present, is analyzed in detail to illustrate the strengths of this new approach.