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The Governance Of The Concorde Democracy With Foreign Ethnic Relations: Based On Three Case Studies

Posted on:2011-08-22Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:Z J YueFull Text:PDF
GTID:1116360305968986Subject:International politics
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In divided and plural societies, it is always a consuming and challenging undertaking to maintain national unity and political stability, make democracy work, protect minority rights and enjoy sound political and policy decision-making. In this dissertation, the author aims to reveal a theory and method to cope with the issue of ethnic relations governance, namely, the consociational democracy and its method.The key theme of this dissertation is to introduce and review the theory and method of consociational democracy with the help of existing literature and further illustration of three case studies with an intention to reveal how this consociational theory could be developed and applied into political practice and institutions, both with strength and weakness. These findings will of course also serve the purpose to draw relevant implications and policy suggestions for China's ethnic relations governance.To start with, an introduction and review of the content and method of consociational democracy are made based on literature review and necessary critique of the theory. As an deviation from and critique of the majority rule democracy heavily dependent on homogeneity of a society that is incompetent to describe and explain functioning democracy and stability in some plural European countries, the consociatoal democracy theory underlines the inclusion of elites of every segments of the society into political and policy process for accommodation and consensus building in order to make decisions affecting every segments of the people. It is a democracy of power-sharing and consensus oriented process. The consociationalist idea, contrary to the majoritarian one, is that a society of high heterogeneity can have at the same time working democracy and stability.The major elements in consociational democracy are: grand coaliation government; mutual veto or concurrent majority; proportionality in terms of political representation, public service recruitment and public resources allocation; segmental autonomy. As a expansion of consociationalism and a parallel alternative to majoritarian democracy, consensus democracy focuses on consensus-building and inclusion of as more segments and more people as possible into the government and policy process in order to develop kinder, gentler and more inclusive democracy and policy performance. Consensus democracy is also of great normative value to the constitutional design to solve ethnic tensions for divided societies.In this dissertation, the consociational democracy acts as the guiding theoretical pillar and framework. Under this pillar, three cases are chosen to illustrate the theory. They are South Tyrol in Italy, Northern Ireland in UK and Belgium.These three cases are some of the best illustrations of consocitionalism. In all these cases, the history of political development and ethnic relations governance structure and practices verify the transformation from majority rule democracy to consociational democracy with intentional design and operation.South Tyrol was under a simple majoritarian autonomy with the Italians overruling the minority Germans and Ladins by imposing a regional majority rule rather than provincial and proportional autonomy. The realization of consociationalism in South Tyrol thus aimed to correct the majoritarianism and install coalition government, mutual veto, proportionality and minority autonomy.Northern Ireland, due to the bipolar confrontation between two religious and ethnic groups, had been in sharp opposition in terms of social, political and even military cleavages. The history of ethnic relations in Northern Ireland underwent a shift from majority tyranny pillared by the protestant superiority in terms of political design and social policies, to a consociationalism after Belfast agreement in the year of 1998, ever after which coalition government, proportional representation and power-sharing have been in place.Known as'artificial state'and under heavy polarized social structure, Belgium used consociationalist thinking and method to solve ethnic tensions. Through decades of accommodation and negotiation between elites, Belgium was transformed from a unitary state to a federal one in which grand coalition, proportionality, mutual veto and autonomy are institutionalized.To Chinese readers, the consociational theory is worth to discuss, as it implies some theoretical and policy inspirations to China's ethnic relations governance and minority autonomy.On the one hand, it should be highlighted and insisted to maintain national unity and require political loyalty from every ethnic groups in the country, as every other nation state would do, on the other hand, in terms of traditional, parochial, ethnic, religious, and linguistic identities and in terms of minority right protection based on both moral and legal obligation, proper and affirmative respect and recognition should be given.As for China's political development, particularly the ethnic relations governance, one should highlight the role of active political practice and institutional building with a mind that practice and institutions guide and shape culture and society. As a prominent practice and institutional design, the consociational democracy lies with the inclusion of elites from every segment into government and policy process in order to develop consensus and harmonize ethnic relations. To be inspired by this core of consociationalism, China should pay more attention to the selection, training and good use of minority cadres, helping with them in mobilizing and leading their ethnic groups, expanding and deepening the minority autonomy, addressing the imbalance in social and economic development, and encouraging cross-cutting identities, communications and shared interest across the ethnic boundaries so as to trigger more affinity.
Keywords/Search Tags:democratic theory, consociational democracy, ethnic relations, South Tyrol, Northern Ireland, Belgium
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