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From 1958 to 1986, Colombian politics were characterised by a series of coalition governments. This book analyses the historical antecedents, establishment and subsequent evolution of the political regime created in 1958. For most of this period, the country was governed by a National Front power-sharing system between the Conservatives and the Liberals, the country's two major parties. This system was initially established to prevent a return to the intense violence between the parties that had earlier led to a political breakdown and military rule. In crucial respects, the Colombian governing arrangement was similar to a number of other cases of coalition governments (termed consociational democracies), to which it is compared in the book.
Students of twentieth-century Colombia and Venezuela will find in the essays useful information on events taking place there through the mid-1980s. Teachers of Latin American government and politics will be able to use these essays as case studies of consociational democracy in the region. And all Latin Americanists will welcome the advent of scholarly writing informed by the consociational model that provides us an approach to contemporary Latin American politics that is at once enlightening and convincing. Southeastern Latin Americanist Venezuela and Columbia both have two-sided structures of democracy. They combine the Liberal Democratic/Anglo-American model and the Latin American model. The first includes the procedural norms of free elections, citizen participation, individual rights, and multi-interest groups. The second comprises the substantive norms of economic development and social justice. The contributors address the following questions: Is one or the other model more significant? How much of a blending or overlap, if any, exists between these two models? Is there a third model that is more significant? In answering these questions, the contributors examine such principal components as national structures and societal evolution, political parties, economic development, the state and the military, guerilla movements, international relations and foreign policy, and the drug trade. Editor Donald L. Herman concludes this study by offering a prognosis for the two respective regimes for the rest of the twentieth century.
This book examines the theoretical and practical relevance and challenges of the consociationalist model of democracy. Since the publication of the Politics of Accommodation (1968) and Democracy in Plural Societies (1977) Professor Lijphart’s theories and practical implementations have played a key role in establishing enduring peace settlements. In this edited volume, scholars and Professor Lijphart himself critically examine the history of consocationalism and its application in areas including Northern Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Colombia. The book will be essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students of political science, comparative politics, transitional justice and peace studies. It will also be of use to practitioners ranging from diplomats to NGOs who are interested in the practical application of tested models of political accommodation.
7. A Concluding Note
While it may be difficult to achieve and maintain stable democratic governments in countries with deep religious, ideological, linguistic, cultural, or ethnic cleavages, Lijphart argues that it is not at all impossible. Through the analysis of political systems in six continents, he demonstrates that what he calls consociational democracy can be successful in severely divided or plural societies. "Here, once again, Arend Lijphart is directing our attention to matters which will surely engage much of the attention of students of comparative politics in the next decade." G. Bingham Powell, Jr., American Political Science Review "A study which can speak to such a wide audience in political science deserves a warm welcome from the profession." Government and Opposition "A copybook example of the comparative method of political analysis, as well as indispensable reading for all who have an interest in the nature and prospects of representative democracy, whether in Europe or beyond."--The Times Higher Education Supplement "This well-written work, containing a wealth of information on politics of many diverse nations, is highly recommended."--Library Journal
This book focuses on the design and operation of power-sharing in deeply divided societies. Beyond this starting point, it seeks to examine the different ways in which consociational institutions emerge from negotiations and peace settlements across three counter-intuitive cases – post-Brexit referendum Northern Ireland, the Brussels Capital Region and Cyprus. Across each of the chapters, the analysis assesses how the design or mediation of these various forms of power-sharing demonstrate similarity, difference and complexity in how consociationalism has been conceived of and operated within each of these contexts. Finally, a key objective of the book is to explore and evaluate how ideas surrounding power-sharing have evolved and changed incrementally within each of the empirical contexts. The unifying argument within the book is that power-sharing has to have the capacity to adapt to changing political circumstances, and that this can be achieved through the interplay of formal and informal micro-level refinements to these institutions and the procedures that govern them, that allow such institutions to evolve over time in ways that increase their utility as conflict transformation governance structures for deeply divided societies. This book fills the gap in the published literature between theoretical and empirical studies of power-sharing, and will be of much interest to students of peace and conflict studies, consociationalism, European politics and IR in general.