Consociation in the Present

Abstract

Consociation, one type of power-sharing, is perhaps the least appreciated. This article reviews and replies to a collection celebrating Arend Lijphart’s pioneering article on consociational democracy published in 1969. The consociational perspective retains its interpretive power, including in the examination of major polities, such as the European Union, the Indian Union, and the USA. In the classical cases, consociational persistence in Belgium and Switzerland contrasts with decay or dissolution in Austria and the Netherlands. Whether the Good Friday Agreement over Northern Ireland demonstrates that consociation rewards ethnic extremism remains unproven. Far from being an exhausted research program, the consociational theme remains vibrant within comparative political analysis, and in the repertoire for managing deeply divided places. No one has ever claimed that consociation is a panacea for national, ethnic, religious or linguistic conflict. Yet the principles of parity, proportionality, autonomy, and minority veto-rights remain cogent in analysis and political prescription.