Cultural Plurality, National Identity and Consensus in Bhutan

Abstract

to build a nation and national identity through a politics of cultural identity on the cultural basis of only one part of the population. As Bhutan is located in volatile South Asia, it will ensure its future independence, sovereignty and security only if it manages to build a real, i.e. psychological, nation – which means to become a state all cultural groups can identify with. On the basis of Bloom’s social-psychological theory, this working paper (which is the short version of an MA thesis) shows that an integrative political system is a probable way to reach this aim, since it can make the Bhutanese state an identity-securing interpretive system for all its cultural groups. On the basis of Lijphart, it further shows that such a political system should incorporate at least the principles of consensus and special representation, and that the chances of a consensus model would be good in the case of Bhutan. Finally, the paper tries to show that the chances of probable and successful future democracy in Bhutan will not – somewhat contrary to Lijphart’s theory of majoritarian and consensus democracy – decrease if based on a two-party system instead of a multiparty system typical for the ideal type of consensus democracy – as long as some crucial points are met. About this Issue CIS