Consociationalism as Regime: Horizontal Accountability and Divergent Trajectories

This article develops a typology of regime trajectories in consociational power-sharing systems. It conceptualizes power-sharing as a regime logic operating through accountability structuration: a recursive mechanism through which consociational rules position accountability institutions relative to segmental allocation, preserving, fragmenting, or weakening horizontal accountability over time. Three ideal types emerge, varying with accountability configuration and elite strategy: Segmental Democracy, Institutional Deadlock, and Segmental Regime Entrenchment. Anchored in North Macedonia and applied comparatively to Lebanon, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, and Northern Ireland, the framework explains how similar inclusionary logics generate divergent outcomes depending on the accountability environment into which power-sharing is introduced.