The Importance of Consociationalism for Twenty-First Century Politics and Political Science

Abstract

Five decades after the term consociationalism made its debut in the comparative politics of divided societies, the huge body of international literature it has sparked continues to grow. In an era of populism and polarization, interest in the many facets of consociationalism is at an all-time high. This introduction to the special issue of Half a Century of Consociationalism: Cases and Comparisons gives an impression of the contemporary state of the consociational research agenda. In addition, the introduction suggests some potentially rewarding new avenues, such as leadership studies, and cautions against the conflation of consociationalism and power sharing. It also voices some skepticism about the suggested promise of large N-quantitative studies in a field still dominated by case-based research. Overall, the introduction and the contributions to this special issue demonstrate the importance of consociationalism for twenty-first century politics and political science – empirically, normatively, and prescriptively.