Consociationalism

Abstract

Consociationalism or consociational democracy means that the destabilizing effects of deep social cleavages can be compensated for by cooperation between subcultures at the elite level. Consociationalism is characterized by grand coalition, segmental autonomy, proportionality, and minority veto. Consociational theory sometimes is equated with the publications of its most influential scholar, Arend Lijphart. The theory is used empirically to explain stable democracy in deeply divided societies (e.g., The Netherlands, Lebanon), and normatively to prescribe a solution when democracy is at risk because of social segmentation (e.g., Northern Ireland, South Africa). The theory sometimes is criticized for its classification of particular countries, the operationalization of its key concepts, and the identification of factors that are favorable to the emergence of consociationalism. A recent offshoot of consociationalism is consensus democracy, which is defined institutionally rather than behaviorally, and also applies to countries without deep social cleavages.