The False Promise of Liberal Consociations

Abstract It has become common to distinguish between two types of consociations. Liberal consociations, which leave open which groups will share power and enjoy autonomy, are generally considered “good”. In contrast, corporate consociations are viewed as “bad” because they institutionalize ethnic politics. This paper challenges these assumptions. It shows that the advantages of liberal consociations have been overstated and the downsides of corporate consociations have been exaggerated. Moreover, there is little liberal about liberal consociations. The paper recommends to go back to the earlier terminology of self-determination vs. pre-determination, to accept that consociational politics is group-based, and to do more systematic empirical research on the effects of different institutional arrangements.