The Consociational Model in Southeast Asia Is It (Still) Relevant?

Meredith L. Weiss

《Taiwan Journal of Democracy》 Special Issue (2013/05) Pp. 149-170

並列摘要

Ethnic and other enduring, ascriptive, politically salient cleavages mark a host of postcolonial states and, if pundits since at least the 1950s are correct, tend to preclude successful democratization. Arend Lijphart's consociational model offers a resolution, in which elite-led power sharing and moderation may allow even deeply segmented societies to overcome fissiparous colonial and other legacies, to move toward stable accommodation. One of the first states outside Western Europe in which consociationalism took root was Malaysia. After reviewing the relevant parameters of and debates on democracy in plural societies, I ask here to what extent Malaysia was or is consociational, and with what enduring implications for the political terrain, review other cases in the region that exhibit particular patterns and mechanisms of consociational rule, then consider the extent to which these examples might be relevant to democratizing, but deeply divided, Myanmar. My objective is not a comprehensive regurgitation and assessment of consociational theory, but a somewhat speculative consideration regarding political possibilities in a region known since colonial days specifically for its ”plural societies.”

並列關鍵字

Communalism ； democracy ； consociational ； Malaysia ； Myanmar ； Southeast Asia

參考文獻

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Lijphart, Arend(1979).Consociation and Federation: Conceptual and Empirical Links.Canadian Journal of Political Science.12(3),499-509.

Lijphart, Arend(1999).Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries.New Haven, CT:Yale University Press.