18.02.2007
The consociational state
_ By Raluca Enescu
Generally speaking, we can define political federalism as a pattern of governance in which a group or body of members are bound together, yet keeping a certain degree of autonomy, or the political and philosophical ideology supporting the before mentioned type of government. The idea of state federalism implies the existence of a central government ruling the whole country, and an autonomous government for each state member of the federation.
It is understood, just like in the democratic principle of dividing power between a certain number of authorities (as, for instance: legislative, executive and juridical) that certain functions and a certain amount of power is transferred from one political body to another, for the purpose of preserving and guaranteeing a number of liberties and rights-in the case of federalism often, though not necessarily and not only- minority rights.
In a federal state-power is always shared by two levels-the central government and the local-ones. In countries where people of different ethnic groups and of different culture live, federalism would be a very efficient way of assigning to each group, the autonomy they are entitled to, while, in the meantime, ensuring the equality of rights specific for a democracy.
In federal legislative systems, each state has, at a certain extent, its own laws, but the Constitution, the fundamental law of a country and the one entitled to mention citizens’ rights and duties is always centrally adopted, to ensure equality of rights. That explains why federalism often proves to be the rational solution in consociational states. Classical examples of consociational states are: Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, India Israel and others.
The idea, employed by modern political scientists, of a consociational state, challenges the quite narrow definition of democracy as rule of the majority. A consociational state is the one which has major internal divisions along ethnic, religious, or linguistic lines, yet nonetheless manages to remain stable, due to consultation among the elites of each of its major social groups.
Apart from the already mentioned federal, decentralized organization, where regional minorities have a strong independence, consociational states have a number of other characteristics. Such as: _
¨ Proportional representation, in the country’s parliament, to allow small minorities to gain representation too;
¨ Organized interest groups, which represent minorities;
¨ A 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, who gives up his party affiliation after his election;
¨ Referenda are used to allow minorities to block legislation: this means that they must be a citizen's initiative and that there is no compulsory voting.
¨ 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 type of political system is by far more suitable in countries inhabited by a variety of ethnic groups, rather than the plain “rule of the majority” principle, being able to offer a wider and more complex range of conflict resolution and to guarantee minority rights.
This model of federalism and consociational state system is an example to be considered for a future democratic Burma. Consocionalism means rule by collective consensus_ a consensus which, if reach, is likely to benefit everyone in the country, whatever the ethnic group they belong in.
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