The Relative Success of Consociational Institutions in Deeply Divided Societies
A Comparative Study of Northern Ireland and Lebanon
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.47.4Keywords:
Comparative Politics, Consociational Democracies, Divided Societies, Good Friday Agreement, Ta’if AgreementAbstract
Lebanon and Northern Ireland conjure opposite images on consociationalism in the minds of many political scientists. While in Lebanon, the consociational system widely proved inefficient in preventing the outbreak of ethno-national conflicts, the Northern Ireland’s experience of consociationalism remains vastly positive. Following a “Most Similar Systems Design” defined by Adam Przeworski and Henry Teune (2000), this research note tests the hypothesis that the positive nature of exogenous influences participates to a higher political stability in Northern Ireland relative to Lebanon, where external influences of negative nature had the reverse effect. For the sake of this study, the developments taking place after the signature of the agreements shaping both consociational systems – the Ta’if Agreement of 1989 in Lebanon and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 in Northern Ireland – are analysed through a particular focus on elites’ external relations with patron states and their interactions with their regional or global environments.
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Przeworski, Adam, and Henry Teune. 2000. The Logic of comparative social inquiry. Malabar, Florida: Krieger.
Ruohomäki, Jyrki. 2010. “Parity of Esteem: A Conceptual Approach to the Northern Ireland Conflict.” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 35, no. 2: 163–185. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F030437541003500204.
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Seaver, Brenda M. 2000. “The Regional Sources of Power-Sharing Failure: The Case of Lebanon.” Political Science Quarterly 115, no. 2 (February): 247–271. https://doi.org/10.2307/2657902.
Siaroff, Alan. 2000. “The Fate of Centrifugal Democracies: Lessons from Consociational Theory and System Performance.” Comparative Politics 32, no. 3: 317–332. https://doi.org/10.2307/422369.
Wallenfeldt, Jeff. 2019. “The Troubles.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Accessed August 10, 2020. www.britannica.com/event/The-Troubles-Northern-Ireland-history.
Zuhair, Ayesha. 2008. “The Power-Sharing Experience in Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka.” International Public Policy Review 4, no. 1 (June): 47–60.
Balázs, Lilla. 2008. “Bosnia and Herzegovina: Transition, Times Two.” L'Europe en Formation 3/4, no. 349–350: 99–118. https://doi.org/10.3917/eufor.349.0099.
Bishara, Azmi. 2018. “On the Development of the Concept of Consociational Democracy and its Adequacy for Resolving Sectarian Conflicts: Northern Ireland and Lebanon as Case Studies.” Research paper, Arab Center for Research & Policy Studies. Accessed September 25, 2020. https://www.dohainstitute.org/en/Lists/ACRPS-PDFDocumentLibrary/Bishara%20Consociational%20Democracy%20Lebanon%20and%20Ireland.pdf.
Bogaards, Matthijs. 2019. “Formal and Informal Consociational Institutions: A Comparison of the National Pact and the Ta’if Agreement in Lebanon.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 25, no. 1: 27–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537113.2019.1565176.
CIA World Factbook. 2018. “Middle East: Lebanon.” CIA. Accessed August 10, 2020. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/print_le.html.
Daalder, Hans. 1974. “The Consociational Democracy Theme.” World Politics 26, no. 4: 604–621. https://doi.org/10.2307/2010104.
Dekmejian, Richard Hrair. 1978. “Consociational Democracy in Crisis: The Case of Lebanon.” Comparative Politics 10, no. 2: 251–265. https://doi.org/10.2307/421648.
Ghosn, Faten, and Amal Khoury. 2011. “Lebanon after the Civil War: Peace or the Illusion of Peace?” The Middle East Journal 65, no. 3: 381–397. https://doi.org/10.3751/65.3.12.
Hays, Don, and Jason Crosby. 2006. From Dayton to Brussels: constitutional preparations for Bosnia's EU accession. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace.
Jabbra, Joseph, and Nancy Jabbra. 2001. “Consociational Democracy in Lebanon: A Flawed System of Governance.” Perspectives on Global Development and Technology 17, no. 2 (January): 71–89. https://doi.org/10.1163/156914901753386976.
Kelly, Brighid Brooks. 2019. Power-sharing and consociational theory. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14191-2.
Kerr, Michael. 2013. Imposing power-sharing: conflict and coexistence in Northern Ireland and Lebanon. Vancouver, B.C.: Langara College.
Kostad. 2007. “Indices of political instability.” In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, edited by William A. Darity Jr., 2nd ed., 979–994. Farmington Hills: Macmillan Reference USA.
Krayem, Hassan. 2015. “The Lebanese Civil War and the Ta’if Agreement.” In Conflict Resolution in the Arab World: Selected Essays, edited by Paul Salem, 441-476. Beirut: American University.
Lijphart, Arend. 1969. “Consociational Democracy.” World Politics 21, no. 2: 207-225. https://doi.org/10.2307/2009820.
Lijphart, Arend. 1975. “The Northern Ireland Problem; Cases, Theories, and Solutions.” British Journal of Political Science 5, no. 1: 83–106. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000712340000805X.
Lijphart, Arend. 1977. Democracy in Plural Societies. New Haven: Yale.
Lijphart, Arend. 1981. Conflict and Coexistence in Belgium: The Dynamics of a Culturally Divided Society. Berkeley: Institute of International Studies.
Lijphart, Arend, and Markus M. L. Crepaz. 1991. “Corporatism and Consensus Democracy in Eighteen Countries: Conceptual and Empirical Linkages.” British Journal of Political Science 21, no. 2: 235–246. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123400006128.
Ltaif, Eduardo Abu. 2015. “The Limitations of the Consociational Arrangements in Iraq.” Ethnopolitics Papers, no. 38 (September): 2–22. Accessed September 25, 2020. https://www.psa.ac.uk/sites/default/files/page-files/AbuLTaif_EP_No38.pdf.
Mainwaring, Scott. 2001. “Two Models of Democracy.” Journal of Democracy 12, no. 3: 170¬–175. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2001.0051.
McEvoy, Joanne. 2015. Power-Sharing Executives: Governing in Bosnia, Macedonia, and Northern Ireland. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812290264.
McGarry, John, and Brendan O'Leary. 2006. “Consociational Theory, Northern Ireland's Conflict, and its Agreement. Part 1: What Consociationalists Can Learn from Northern Ireland.” Government and Opposition 41, no. 1 (January): 43–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-7053.2006.00170.x.
McRae, Kenneth D. 1979. “Comment: Federation, Consociation, Corporatism—An Addendum to Arend Lijphart.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 12, no. 3 (September): 517–522. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423900051726.
Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. 2011. “2011 Census: Information on the 2011 Census in Northern Ireland, including how to access the data and supporting documents.” NISRA. Accessed August 10, 2020. https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics/census/2011-census.
Norton, Augustus R. 1991. “Lebanon after Ta’if: is the civil war over?” Middle East Journal 45, no. 3 (Summer): 457–473. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4328316.
Przeworski, Adam, and Henry Teune. 2000. The Logic of comparative social inquiry. Malabar, Florida: Krieger.
Ruohomäki, Jyrki. 2010. “Parity of Esteem: A Conceptual Approach to the Northern Ireland Conflict.” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 35, no. 2: 163–185. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F030437541003500204.
Salamey, Imad. 2015. “Failing Consociationalism in Lebanon and Integrative Options.” Accessed September 25, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10725/2164.
Saouli, Adham. 2006. “Stability Under Late State Formation: The Case of Lebanon.” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 19, no. 4: 701–717. https://doi.org/10.1080/09557570601043995.
Seaver, Brenda M. 2000. “The Regional Sources of Power-Sharing Failure: The Case of Lebanon.” Political Science Quarterly 115, no. 2 (February): 247–271. https://doi.org/10.2307/2657902.
Siaroff, Alan. 2000. “The Fate of Centrifugal Democracies: Lessons from Consociational Theory and System Performance.” Comparative Politics 32, no. 3: 317–332. https://doi.org/10.2307/422369.
Wallenfeldt, Jeff. 2019. “The Troubles.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Accessed August 10, 2020. www.britannica.com/event/The-Troubles-Northern-Ireland-history.
Zuhair, Ayesha. 2008. “The Power-Sharing Experience in Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka.” International Public Policy Review 4, no. 1 (June): 47–60.
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Published
2020-12-31
How to Cite
Bernadaux, Chloé. 2020. “The Relative Success of Consociational Institutions in Deeply Divided Societies: A Comparative Study of Northern Ireland and Lebanon”. Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science 47 (December). Online:77-93. https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.47.4.
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