Crisis, Opportunities, and Consociational Federalism: Reassessing Lijphart’s Work After Half a Century of Consociationalism

Half a century ago, Dutch political scientist Arend Lijphart crafted the concept of consociational democracy (or consociationalism). His theory first aimed at explaining how divided societies could be politically stable, but was then used as a normative attempt to propose an institutional framework for power-sharing arrangements in plural contexts. For Lijphart, this framework is to be used to address the structural “crisis” that is looming in divided societies, a crisis that results from the majority-minority(ies) relationships. The concept of consociationalism, when it is combined or merged with federalism, becomes consociational federalism, a model that can serve both as a practical tool and as a normative theory to study and compare divided societies. This is the exercise in which we engaged in fine, comparing how Belgium, Switzerland and Canada have developed structures and practices infused with consociational federalism. Our conclusion is that, while they are not necessarily three consociational democracies, these three federations have nevertheless put in place mechanisms for cohesion and collaboration. Thus, consociationalism seems to be a valuable remedy to the crisis of divided societies, a guiding principle in their quest for stability, cohesion and good governance.