Abstract
Consociational democracy is both highly contested in the academic literature and widely used by constitutional engineers working to re-establish democratic governance in deeply divided polities. This work seeks to understand why elites in Cyprus have been thus far unprepared to share power. As a first step in this project, the present chapter will examine whether the body of ‘consociational’ ideas, on which efforts at a political settlement have drawn, can create a stable political system which promotes and reinforces co-operation, and is able to manage potential political conflict. There are a number of important criticisms of consociational theory which are also highlighted by the Cyprus case. These criticisms, described initially in this chapter and examined further in later chapters, provide insight into why political settlement has been so elusive in Cyprus.
Consociationalists … agree that it would be better if their polity had a ‘normal’ set of institutions for dividing and competing for power. But experience has taught them that deep and protracted conflicts between national, ethnic and religious communities requires that power be systematically shared as well as divided subject to competition.1
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Notes
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© 2009 Christalla Yakinthou
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Yakinthou, C. (2009). Consociationalism in Theory and Practice. In: Political Settlements in Divided Societies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230246874_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230246874_2
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