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50-411: "Popular" was a reference to popolarismo , the Italian variety of Christian democracy. The groups, launched in December 2014, originally included 34 deputies and 36 senators, comprising the New Centre-Right (NCD), the Union of the Centre (UdC), some dissidents from Civic Choice (SC) and a splinter from the Five Star Movement (M5S). The UdC and most former SC members were previously affiliated to

100-647: A consociational basis, including Belgium , Italy , Cyprus (effective 1960–1963), the First Czechoslovak Republic , Israel , Lebanon , the Netherlands (1917–1967), Northern Ireland , Switzerland (consultation mostly across ideological lines), Ethiopia , Zimbabwe-Rhodesia , and South Africa . Some academics have also argued that the European Union resembles a consociational democracy, with consultation across ideological lines. Additionally,

150-542: A multi- system with strong leaders. This philosophy is dominated by elites, with those masses that are sidelined with the elites having less to lose if war breaks out. Consociationalism cannot be imperially applied. For example, it does not effectively apply to Austria . Critics also point to the failure of this line of reasoning in Lebanon , a country that reverted to civil war. It only truly applies in Switzerland , Belgium and

200-620: A number of "favourable conditions" under which consociationalism is likely to be successful. He has changed the specification of these conditions somewhat over time. Michael Kerr summarised Lijphart's most prominent favourable factors as: Lijphart stresses that these conditions are neither indispensable nor sufficient to account for the success of consociationalism. This has led Rinus van Schendelen to conclude that "the conditions may be present and absent, necessary and unnecessary, in short conditions or no conditions at all". John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary argue that three conditions are key to

250-537: A number of peace agreements are consociational, including: The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan 's political system was also described as consociational, although it lacked ethnic quotas. In addition to the two-state solution to solve the Arab–Israeli conflict , some have argued for a one-state solution under a consociational democracy in the state of Israel , but this solution is not very popular, nor has it been discussed seriously at peace negotiations. During

300-742: A nutshell, Popularism was a political version of its predecessor, the prevalently social Christian Democracy. In this European context, Popularism helped Catholics come to accept democratic institutions, alongside inspiring the French Popular Democratic Party (formed 1924), the Spanish Partido Social Popular  [ es ] , and the People and Freedom group (formed 1936), which Sturzo helped form in London. Sturzo outlined his conception of popularism as follows: Popularism

350-420: Is a form of democratic power sharing . Political scientists define a consociational state as one which has major internal divisions along ethnic, religious, or linguistic lines, but which remains stable due to consultation among the elites of these groups. Consociational states are often contrasted with states with majoritarian electoral systems . The goals of consociationalism are governmental stability,

400-421: Is a more realistic option in deeply divided societies than integrationist approaches to conflict management . Many criticisms have been levelled against the deployment of consociationalism in state-building. It has been criticised as institutionalising and deepening existing divisions, being severely dependent on external support for survival, and temporarily freezing conflicts but not resolving them. Given

450-461: Is democratic, but it differs from liberal democracy in that it denies the individualist and centralising system of the State and wishes the State to be organic and decentralised. It is liberal (in the wholesome sense of the word) because it takes its stand on the civil and political liberties, which it upholds as equal for all, without party monopolies and without persecution of religion, races or classes. It

500-402: Is designed in a way that strengthens regional parties, which in turn encourage ethnic conflict. James Anderson also supports Horowitz's contention that consociational powersharing built around diverging identities can entrench and sharpen these divisions. Citing the example of Northern Ireland , Anderson argues such approaches tend to "prioritise the same general type of territorial identity as

550-457: Is meant to prevent. Brian Barry has questioned the nature of the divisions that exist in the countries that Lijphart considers to be "classic cases" of consociational democracies. For example, he makes the case that in the Swiss example, "political parties cross-cut cleavages in the society and provide a picture of remarkable consensus rather than highly structured conflict of goals". In the case of

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600-422: Is social in the sense of a radical reform of the present capitalist system, but it parts company with socialism because it admits of private property while insisting on the social function of such property. It proclaims its Christian character because to-day there can be no ethics or civilisation other than Christian. Popularism was the antithesis of the totalitarian State. In describing Popularism, Sturzo refers to

650-480: Is to work towards a policy that is for the good of all the members of society as opposed to parties that promote the good of a specific group (i.e. class). The second refers to a society where the people live in a kind of harmony and where people and groups are interested in and care about each other. In practice, the specific religious nature of the Christian Democratic parties has enabled them to cut across

700-858: The For Italy groups. In the 2015 regional elections , Popular Area ran lists in Veneto , Liguria and Tuscany . In Campania and Umbria the names "Popular Campania" and "For Popular Umbria" were used, respectively. Finally, in Marche and Apulia , the NCD (without the UdC) formed a joint list with Marche 2020 and Francesco Schittulli 's movement, respectively, under the Popular Area banner. The best results were obtained in Apulia (6.0%), Campania (4.0%) and Marche (4.0%); in Apulia and Marche

750-458: The 1950s, cross-denominational co-operation was increasing, and formerly coherent political sub-cultures were dissolving. He argued that elites in the Netherlands were not motivated by preferences derived from the general interest, but rather by self-interest. They formed coalitions not to forge consociational negotiation between segments but to improve their parties' respective power. He argued that

800-584: The 1980s the South African government attempted to reform apartheid into a consociational democracy. The South African Constitution of 1983 applied Lijphart's powersharing ideas by establishing a Tricameral Parliament . During the 1990s negotiations to end apartheid the National Party (NP) and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) proposed a settlement based upon consociationalism. The African National Congress (ANC) opposed consociationalism and proposed instead

850-528: The Christian Democratic notions of the people, and democracy. The notion of the people is that the people extend beyond the working class, and actually encompasses the whole of society. But it is not a mass aggregation of individuals; the people is an organically unified community, but also internally diverse community. Christian Democratic parties have invoked the people when naming themselves “popular” or “People’s Parties”. In this invocation, Christian Democratic parties aim for two things. The first

900-445: The NCD within Popular Area. In March 2017 the NCD was dissolved into Popular Alternative (AP) and also Popular Area was set aside. The alliance was originally composed by the following two parties: Since December 2016, the alliance is composed by the following parties: Popolarismo Popolarismo (English: Popularism ) is the term Italian politician Luigi Sturzo used to describe his political doctrine that formed

950-799: The Netherlands was "stable" in that it had few protests or riots, but that it was so before consociationalism, and that it was not stable from the standpoint of government turnover. He questioned the extent to which the Netherlands, or indeed any country labelled a consociational system, could be called a democracy, and whether calling a consociational country a democracy isn't somehow ruled out by definition. He believed that Lijphart suffered severe problems of rigor when identifying whether particular divisions were cleavages, whether particular cleavages were segmental, and whether particular cleavages were cross-cutting. Ian Lustick has argued that academics lack an alternative "control" approach for explaining stability in deeply divided societies and that this has resulted in

1000-585: The Netherlands, and not in more deeply divided societies. If one of three groups gets half plus one of the vote, then the other groups are in perpetual opposition, which is largely incompatible with consociationalism. Consociationalism assumes that each group is cohesive and has strong leadership. Although the minority can block decisions, this requires 100 per cent agreement. Rights are given to communities rather than individuals, leading to over-representation of some individuals in society and under-representation of others. Grand coalitions are unlikely to happen due to

1050-491: The Netherlands, he argues that "the whole cause of the disagreement was the feeling of some Dutchman ... that it mattered what all the inhabitants of the country believed. Demands for policies aimed at producing religious or secular uniformity presuppose a concern ... for the state of grace of one's fellow citizens". He contrasts this to the case of a society marked by conflict, in this case Northern Ireland , where he argues that "the inhabitants ... have never shown much worry about

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1100-628: The UdC, which was in alliance with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), scored 6.0% and 3.4%, respectively. In the run-up of the 2016 constitutional referendum the UdC campaigned for the "No", while the NCD was among the keenest supporters of the "Yes". After the referendum, which saw a huge defeat of the "Yes" side, the UdC left Popular Area altogether. However, some UdC splinters, notably including Pier Ferdinando Casini , Gianpiero D'Alia and Gian Luca Galletti , launched an alternative party named Centrists for Europe (CpE) and confirmed their alliance with

1150-566: The apparent necessity for external regulation of these agreements, many scholars have characterised these state-building projects as deeply invasive. A recurring concern therein is the erosion of the governing elite's accountability towards its population and the fostering of clientele politics. These dynamics have been pointed to as obstacles to the resolution of the deep divisions consociations are meant to alleviate. Further critiques have pointed out that consociations have at times encouraged conditions of " fragile states ", which state-building

1200-524: The case for consociationalism and power-sharing had weakened significantly since first proposed based on experiments and real-life observations. He argues that in some cases it can bring short-term peace, but that it is always temporary and is likely to worsen tensions in the long-run. Critics point out that consociationalism is dangerous in a system of differing antagonistic ideologies , generally conservatism and communism . They state that specific conditions must exist for three or more groups to develop

1250-692: The civil legislature and magistracy. It was debated at length in the Boston Synod of 1662. This was when the Episcopalian Act of Uniformity 1662 was being introduced in England . Consociationalism was originally discussed in academic terms by the political scientist Arend Lijphart . However, Lijphart has stated that he "merely discovered what political practitioners had repeatedly – and independently of both academic experts and one another – invented years earlier". Theoretically, consociationalism

1300-405: The class divide. The notion of the democracy that derives from this reflects the socio-economic diversity of people by advocating inclusive forms of democracy . This has led to the Christian Democratic call for Proportional Representation . Christian Democrats have also called for Pillarization , which where representatives is based on a vast array of complex social organizations ingrained in

1350-406: The condition that "the existence of positive external regulating pressures, from state to non-state actors, which provide the internal elites with sufficient incentives and motives for their acceptance of, and support for, consociation". In a consociational state, all groups, including minorities, are represented on the political and economic stages. Supporters of the consociationalism argue that it

1400-414: The disposition to listen to changes in society. Modern Christian Democrats have called for Popularism. In 2019, after a meeting with Pope Francis and Donald Tusk , Charles Michel noted the differences between Popularism (popolarismo) and Populism (populismo): With Pope Francis we discussed the difference between ‘populismo’ and ‘popolarismo’ distinguishing the politics of ‘pleasing the people’ from

1450-418: The domestic political affairs of the state to implement legislation on which domestic elites were reluctant to come to an agreement on. While the current results of consociational arrangements implemented in post-conflict state-building endeavours have been mixed, scholars such as O'Leary and McGarry maintain that they have often proven to be the most practical approach to ending immediate conflict and creating

1500-427: The dynamics of ethnic competition. Each group seeks more power for itself. Consociationalists are criticized for focusing too much on the set up of institutions and not enough on transitional issues which go beyond such institutions. Finally, it is claimed that consociational institutions promote sectarianism and entrench existing identities. The political systems of a number of countries operate or used to operate on

1550-513: The elaborately specified claim that issues dividing polarized blocs are settled by leaders convinced of the need for settlement". Consociationalism focuses on diverging identities such as ethnicity instead of integrating identities such as class, institutionalizing and entrenching the former. Furthermore, it relies on rival co-operation, which is inherently unstable. It focuses on intrastate relations and neglects relations with other states. Donald L. Horowitz argues that consociationalism can lead to

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1600-511: The electorate. The idea has received significant criticism in its applicability to democratic political systems, especially with regard to power-sharing. Consociation was first discussed in the 17th century New England Confederation . It described the interassociation and cooperation of the participant self-governing Congregational churches of the various colonial townships of the Massachusetts Bay Colony . These were empowered in

1650-488: The empirical overextension of consociational models. Lustick argues that Lijphart has "an impressionistic methodological posture, flexible rules for coding data, and an indefatigable, rhetorically seductive commitment to promoting consociationalism as a widely applicable principle of political engineering", that results in him applying consociational theory to case studies that it does not fit. Furthermore, Lustick states that "Lijphart's definition of 'accommodation' ... includes

1700-478: The establishment of democratic consociational power-sharing: elites have to be motivated to engage in conflict regulation; elites must lead deferential segments; and there must be a multiple balance of power, but more importantly the subcultures must be stable. Michael Kerr, in his study of the role of external actors in power-sharing arrangements in Northern Ireland and Lebanon, adds to McGarry and O'Leary's list

1750-520: The ethno-nationalists". Nonetheless, Anderson concedes difficulty lies in the fact such identities cannot simply be wished away, as he argues is attempted when focusing only on individual rights at the expense of group rights. As an alternative of consociationalism Horowitz suggested an alternative model – centripetalism . Centripetalism aims to depoliticize ethnicity and to encourage multi-ethnic parties instead of reinforcing ethnic divides through political institutions. In 2022, Yascha Mounk argued that

1800-569: The expansion of the favourable conditions to external factors in the literature as well. Rather than internally constructed by state elites, these recent examples have been characterised by external facilitation, and at times imposition, through international actors. In the process, consociational arrangements have frequently been used to transform immediate violent conflict and solidify peace settlements in extremely fragile contexts of deeply divided societies. The volatile environments in which these recent examples have been implemented have exhibited

1850-597: The fabric of society. Often, these organizations play an intermediary role to democracy. In light of the 100th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Italian Popular Party, the Luigi Sturzo Institute has aimed to increase the general knowledge about the party, and noted that: Popularism is characterized by the constructive capacity of new political forms, by the demand for institutional reforms and by

1900-543: The ideological basis for the Italian Popular Party and later Christian Democracy . In the Papal Encyclical Graves de Communi, (1901) Pope Leo XIII did not want Christian Democracy to enter the political sphere, and restricted it to the social action. Sturzo developed Popularism as an alternative means of political action, which had an ideological focus on the people. As one academic notes: To put it in

1950-410: The necessary stability for peace-building to take place. Its utility has been seen in its transformative aspect, flexibility, and "realist" approach to existing identity formations that are difficult to incorporate in a majoritarian system. Lijphart identifies four key characteristics of consociational democracies: Consociational policies often have these characteristics: Lijphart also identified

2000-497: The need for external interference not only for their initial implementation but also for their continued existence. As such, a range of international actors have assumed mediating and supporting roles to preserve power-sharing agreements in targeted states. Most prominently in Bosnia-Herzegovina , this has involved an "international regulating body" in the form of a High Representative who in one period frequently intervened in

2050-515: The political program of the Italian Popular Party, which called for the state to recognize natural communities, such as the family, the classes and the communes, proportional representation and universal suffrage for women, for an elected senate to represent the managers, trade unions and academics, the decentralization of power and greater regional autonomy, freedom of religion, the demonopolisation of education, and pro workers legislation generally. The Popular Democratic Party's most significant theorist

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2100-669: The politics of ‘for the people’. A key question for European Christian Democrats. Donald Tusk, would later refer to this meeting at the European People's Party congress in Zagreb, and call for "responsible popularity" over "irresponsible populism". Pope Francis would later call for Popularism instead of Populism in a video message for the release of his book Let us Dream: The Path to a Better Future. Consociationalism Consociationalism ( / k ən ˌ s oʊ ʃ i ˈ eɪ ʃ ən əl ɪ z əm / kən- SOH -shee- AY -shən-əl-iz-əm )

2150-500: The post") electoral system rather than a proportional one. In their heyday, each comprised tightly organised groups, schools, universities, hospitals and newspapers, all divided along a Balkanised social structure. The theory, according to Lijphart, focuses on the role of social elites, their agreement and co-operation, as the key to a stable democracy. Based on this initial study of consociational democracy, John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary trace consociationalism back to 1917, when it

2200-461: The prospects of the adherents of the other religion going to hell". Barry concludes that in the Dutch case, consociationalism is tautological and argues that "the relevance of the 'consociational' model for other divided societies is much more doubtful than is commonly supposed". Rinus van Schendelen has argued that Lijphart uses evidence selectively. Pillarisation was "seriously weakening", even in

2250-416: The reification of ethnic divisions, since "grand coalitions are unlikely, because of the dynamics of intraethnic competition. The very act of forming a multiethnic coalition generates intraethnic competition – flanking – if it does not already exist". Consistent with Horowitz's claims, Dawn Brancati finds that federalism/territorial autonomy, an element of consociationalism, strengthens ethnic divisions if it

2300-406: The survival of the power-sharing arrangements, the survival of democracy , and the avoidance of violence . When consociationalism is organised along religious confessional lines, as in Lebanon , it is known as confessionalism . Consociationalism is sometimes seen as analogous to corporatism . Some scholars consider consociationalism a form of corporatism. Others claim that economic corporatism

2350-419: Was inducted from Lijphart's observations of political accommodation in the Netherlands, after which Lijphart argued for a generalizable consociational approach to ethnic conflict regulation. The Netherlands, as a consociational state, was between 1857 and 1967 divided into four non-territorial pillars : Calvinist , Catholic , socialist , and general , although until 1917 there was a plurality ("first past

2400-519: Was Marcel Prélot, who was Struzo's French translator. He said the Popular Democratic Party: called themselves démocrate populaires in spite of the slight pleonasm of the term in order to underline, on one hand, their determined adherence to government "for the people" and "by the people"; in order, on the other hand, to indicate their organic and anti-individualistic conception of social life. Academics have noted that Popularism relates to

2450-461: Was designed to regulate class conflict , while consociationalism developed on the basis of reconciling societal fragmentation along ethnic and religious lines. Concurrent majority can be a precursor to consociationalism. A consociational democracy differs from consensus democracy (e.g. in Switzerland ), in that consociational democracy represents a consensus of representatives with minority veto, while consensus democracy requires consensus across

2500-413: Was first employed in the Netherlands , while Gerhard Lehmbruch suggests 'precursors' of consociationalism as early as the 1555 Peace of Augsburg . While Lijphart's initial theory drew primarily from Western European democracies in its formulation of consociationalism, it has gained immense traction in post-conflict state-building contexts in the past decades. This development has been reflected in

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