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Debating Consociational Politics: Normative and Explanatory Arguments
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4
“progressive” identities, such as those focused on class or gender.
6
Consociation, in this
perspective, does not resolve conflict: at best, it organizes and regulates a stalemate around the relevant collective identities. It encourages a politics of immobilism and gridlock. Paul Brass is typical of critics who think in this mode: he argues that the elites whose prudence is hailed by consociationalists are the very ones with vested interests in maintaining collective antagonisms. Consociation, he claims, reinforces their respective dominance within their own communities. Brass believes that consociation’s proponents operate with the “mistaken assumption that cultural differences among ethnic groups are ‘objective’ factors.” He thinks consociationalists exaggerate the problems associated with strong collective identities and questions their core premise that “ethnic divisions are more inflammatory than other types.”
7
Liberal, socialist, and feminist critics of consociation unite in suggesting that the political and social opportunities for transforming identities are more extensive than is suggested by what they deem to be the primordial pessimism of consociational thinkers. Interestingly, they see consociationalists as conservatives, who take people as they are (or have been made to be) and not as they might be (and long to be). Ethnicity, according to Rupert Taylor, is seen by consociationalists as a social fact rather than a choice made by people: “The point that consociationalism has not grasped, but that has been central to both liberalism and Marxism, is that human freedom is a power, a Promethean force.”
8
Political integration, the creation of
a common citizenship and public sphere, and the non-recognition of cultural differences in the public domain, from this perspective, are much preferred over consociation. As Brass puts it, it is best to “keep some possibility for change, internal division [of communities], and secularization open, for the sake of the ultimate integration of the people in a common political order and to preserve individual rights and the future prospects of individual autonomy.”
9
6
Rupert Taylor, “The New South Africa: Consociational or Consensual Power-Sharing,” ASEN Bulletin 8 (2004):14-18;
Rupert Taylor, “Consociation or Social Transformation?” in Northern Ireland and the Divided World: Post-Agreement
Northern Ireland in Comparative Perspective, ed. John McGarry (Oxford: Oxford University press, 2001), 36-52; Joseph
Ruane and Jennifer Todd, The Dynamics of Conflict in Northern Ireland: Power, Conflict and Emancipation (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1996).
7
Paul R. Brass, Ethnic Conflict in Multiethnic Societies: The Consociational Solution and Its Critics (New Delhi: Sage,
1991), 338.
8
Taylor, “Consociation or Social Transformation?,” 40.
9
Brass, Ethnic Conflict in Multiethnic Societies, 346, note 11.
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| | Authors: O'Leary, Brendan. |
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4
“progressive” identities, such as those focused on class or gender.
6
Consociation, in this
perspective, does not resolve conflict: at best, it organizes and regulates a stalemate around
the relevant collective identities. It encourages a politics of immobilism and gridlock. Paul
Brass is typical of critics who think in this mode: he argues that the elites whose prudence is
hailed by consociationalists are the very ones with vested interests in maintaining collective
antagonisms. Consociation, he claims, reinforces their respective dominance within their own
communities. Brass believes that consociation’s proponents operate with the “mistaken
assumption that cultural differences among ethnic groups are ‘objective’ factors.” He thinks
consociationalists exaggerate the problems associated with strong collective identities and
questions their core premise that “ethnic divisions are more inflammatory than other types.”
7
Liberal, socialist, and feminist critics of consociation unite in suggesting that the political and
social opportunities for transforming identities are more extensive than is suggested by what
they deem to be the primordial pessimism of consociational thinkers. Interestingly, they see
consociationalists as conservatives, who take people as they are (or have been made to be)
and not as they might be (and long to be). Ethnicity, according to Rupert Taylor, is seen by
consociationalists as a social fact rather than a choice made by people: “The point that
consociationalism has not grasped, but that has been central to both liberalism and Marxism,
is that human freedom is a power, a Promethean force.”
8
Political integration, the creation of
a common citizenship and public sphere, and the non-recognition of cultural differences in
the public domain, from this perspective, are much preferred over consociation. As Brass
puts it, it is best to “keep some possibility for change, internal division [of communities], and
secularization open, for the sake of the ultimate integration of the people in a common
political order and to preserve individual rights and the future prospects of individual
autonomy.”
9
6
Rupert Taylor, “The New South Africa: Consociational or Consensual Power-Sharing,” ASEN Bulletin 8 (2004):14-18;
Rupert Taylor, “Consociation or Social Transformation?” in Northern Ireland and the Divided World: Post-Agreement
Northern Ireland in Comparative Perspective, ed. John McGarry (Oxford: Oxford University press, 2001), 36-52; Joseph
Ruane and Jennifer Todd, The Dynamics of Conflict in Northern Ireland: Power, Conflict and Emancipation (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1996).
7
Paul R. Brass, Ethnic Conflict in Multiethnic Societies: The Consociational Solution and Its Critics (New Delhi: Sage,
1991), 338.
8
Taylor, “Consociation or Social Transformation?,” 40.
9
Brass, Ethnic Conflict in Multiethnic Societies, 346, note 11.
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