Consociational state

Political scientists define a consociational state as a state which has major internal divisions along ethnic, religious, or linguistic lines, with none of the divisions large enough to form a majority group, yet nonetheless manages to remain stable, due to consultation among the elites of each of its major social groups. Political science is a branch of Social sciences that deals with the theory and practice of Politics and the description and analysis of Political systems A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. Elite (also spelled Élite) is taken originally from the Latin, eligere, "to elect" Consociational states are often contrasted with states with majority rule. Majoritarianism is a traditional Political philosophy or agenda which asserts that a Majority (sometimes categorized by Religion, Language, or

Classical examples of consociational states are Belgium, Switzerland, Lebanon, and the Netherlands (from 1917 until 1967, see pillarisation). Politics of Belgium takes place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic Constitutional monarchy, whereby the Politics of Switzerland takes place in the framework of a multi-party federal parliamentary democratic Republic, whereby the Lebanon is a Parliamentary democracy within the overall framework of confessionalism, in which the highest offices are proportionately reserved for representatives The politics of the Netherlands take place within the framework of a parliamentary Representative democracy, a Constitutional monarchy and a Pillarisation ( verzuiling in Dutch, pilarisation in French) is a term used to describe the denominational segregation of Dutch

Consociational polities often have these characteristics:

Coalition cabinets, where executive power is shared between parties, not concentrated in one. A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a Cabinet of a parliamentary Government in which several parties cooperate Many of these cabinets are oversized, they include parties not necessary for a parliamentary majority;
Balance of power between executive and legislative;
Decentralized and federal government, where (regional) minorities have considerable independence;
Asymmetric bicameralism, where it is very difficult for one party to gain a majority in both houses. In Political science and Constitutional law, the executive is the branch of government responsible for the day-to-day management of the State. A legislature is a type of representative Deliberative assembly with the power to create amend and change Laws The law created by a legislature is called Legislation In Government, bicameralism (bi + Latin la ''camera'' chamber is the practice of having two legislative or Parliamentary chambers Thus a bicameral Normally one chamber represents regional interests and the other national interests;
Proportional representation, to allow (small) minorities to gain representation too;
Organized and corporatist interest groups, which represent minorities;
A rigid constitution, which prevents government from changing the constitution without consent of minorities;
Judicial review, which allow minorities to go to the courts to seek redress against laws that they see as unjust;
Elements of direct democracy, which allow minorities to enact or prevent legislation;
Proportional employment in the public sector;
A neutral head of state, either a monarch with only ceremonial duties, or an indirectly elected president, who gives up his party affiliation after his election;
Referendums are only used to allow minorities to block legislation: this means that they must be a citizen's initiative and that there is no compulsory voting. This article is about the generic foreign affairs term See The National Interest for the political journal Proportional representation (sometimes referred to as full representation or PR is a category of electoral formula aiming at a close match between the percentage of votes Historically corporatism (corporativismo refers to a political or Economic system in which power is held by civic assemblies that represent Economic A constitution is a system for government often Codified as a written document that establishes the rules and principles of an autonomous political entity Judicial review is the power of the courts to annul the acts of the executive and/or the legislative power where it finds them incompatible with a higher norm Direct Democracy is a movement within the British Conservative Party dedicated to localism and Constitutional reform as a means of reviving public Head of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a Monarchic or Republican Nation-state A monarchy is a Form of government in which supreme power is actually or nominally lodged in an individual who is the Head of state, often for life or A referendum (plural referendums or referenda) ballot question, or plebiscite (from Latin plebiscita In Political science, the initiative (also known as popular or citizen's initiative) provides a means by which a Petition signed by a certain
Equality between ministers in cabinet, the prime minister is only the primus inter pares;
An independent central bank, where experts and not politicians set out monetary policies. This article is about the government position For other uses see Prime Minister (disambiguation. Primus inter pares ( Latin) or First among equals is a phrase which indicates that a person is the most senior of a group of people A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is the entity responsible for the Monetary policy of a country or of a group of member states

In this view, Switzerland, a country with no clear majority group, is a prime example of such a consensus democracy. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation Examples of this include: the frequent use of referendums, its confederal structure, and the tradition that all large parties are included in the cabinet, creating oversized coalition governments. A referendum (plural referendums or referenda) ballot question, or plebiscite (from Latin plebiscita A confederation is a group of empowered states or communities usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution This can be directly linked to the many minorities Switzerland has: its population consists of both Protestants and Roman Catholics; and French-, German-, Italian- and Romansch-speaking groups. Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Romansh (also spelled Romansch, Rumants(ch or Romanche) is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German,

The EU too can be seen as a consensus democracy: The parliament is bicameral: one chamber, the European Parliament is directly elected, the other the Council consists of national ministers. The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in The European Parliament ( Europarl or EP) is the only directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU The Council of the European Union is the principal decision making institution in the European Union (EU The executive (the European Commission) is very weak in comparison to the legislature (especially the European Council). The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive branch of the European Union. The Commission could be seen as an oversized coalition including (nearly) all parties in parliament.

See also