Classical Consociational Theory and Recent Consociational Performance

Lijphart’s classical consociational theory, developed between the 1960s and 1975, was based largely on the experience of four western European cases. He argued that the success of consociations depended on the preparedness and ability of elites to cooperate, and that the prospects for success were facilitated by the presence of certain historical and structural factors, including a tradition of accommodation and a “multiple balance of power”. In the past forty years or so, consociations have been implemented, or attempted, in a number of places quite unlike the classical cases. This article argues that a satisfactory explanation of the performance of the new consociations requires consideration of three dimensions additional to those described in Lijphart’s classical account. These are, respectively, the i) external dimension; ii) the security dimension; and iii) the self‐determination dimension.