The Consociational Party

The literature on political power sharing of socio-cultural groups is dominated by the well-known model of consociational democracy, characterized by cooperation between the leaders of segmental parties representing specific constituencies, usually minorities (Lijphart, 1977). However, in many countries the political represen-tation and accommodation of diversity take place within rather than among parties. This important distinction has not been duly recognized in accounts of consociationalism in Canada (Liberal Party), Fiji (Alliance Party), India (Congress Party), Kenya (KANU), Malaysia (Alliance/National Front), South Africa (African National Congress), and the former Yugoslavia (League of Communists). So far, no framework exists that allows for the identification and analysis of such cases of intra-party representation and accommodation. The concept of the “consociational party” (Bogaards, 2005) intends to fill this gap and to open up a new line of research.