Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T23:21:11.223Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nonelectoral Participation in Deeply Divided Societies: Transforming Consociations from the Ground Up?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2020

Timofey Agarin Open the ORCID record for Timofey Agarin [Opens in a new window]
Timofey Agarin*
Affiliation:
Center for the Study of Ethnic Conflict, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Premised on elite accommodation, consociations provide little consideration for citizens’ input on institutional change. Likewise, valuable analyses of cross-community political participation in divided societies have emerged in recent years, yet whether the relationship between the grassroot and formal political process has broader consequences remains to be fully explored. The article examines the conditions in which nonelectoral participation takes place and the ways in which actors involved therein negotiate constraints for continuous cross-community mobilization. The structure of political systems and the nature of deep divisions in Northern Ireland and Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina invite a comparison of the consequences of nonelectoral political participation in these two illustrative case studies. The article concludes that while the formal political context shapes the likelihood of engagement on a cross-community basis, whether nonelectoral participation changes the structure of political decision-making depends on the willingness and ability of those involved to cooperate with formal institutional politics.

Keywords

nonelectoral participationdeeply divided societiesconsociationalismBosniaNorthern Ireland
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 49 , Issue 2: Special Issue on Conceptualizing and Operationalizing Identity, Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality by Law , March 2021 , pp. 344 - 360
Check for updates
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agarin, Timofey. 2020. “The Limits of Inclusion: Representation of Minority and Non-Dominant Communities in Consociational and Liberal Democracies.” International Political Science Review 41 (1): 15–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agarin, Timofey, McCulloch, Allison, and Murtagh, Cera. 2018. “Others in Deeply Divided Societies: A Research Agenda.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 24 (3): 299–310.Google Scholar
Armakolas, Ioannis, and Maksimovic, Maja. 2013. “‘Babylution’ A Civic Awakening in Bosnia and Herzegovina?” Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy 34: 3–11.Google Scholar
Arsenijević, Damir. 2014. Unbribable Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Struggle for the Commons. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos.10.5771/9783845256740CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BBC. 2019. NI Council Elections: First Openly-Gay DUP Candidate Elected. May 4. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-politics-47969822. (Accessed January 6, 2020.)Google Scholar
Beichelt, Timm, Hahn, Irene, Schimmelfennig, Frank, and Worschech, Susann. 2014. Civil Society and Democracy Promotion. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belyaeva, Nina. 2017. “Citizen Plenums in Bosnia Protests: Creating a Post-Ethnic Identity.” In Non-Western Social Movements and Participatory Democracy, edited by Arbatli, Ekim and Rosenberg, Dina, 115–138. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.10.1007/978-3-319-51454-3_8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benford, Robert D., and Snow, David A.. 2000. “Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment.” Annual Review of Sociology 26: 611–639.10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.611CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bieber, Florian. 2004. “Power Sharing as Ethnic Representation in Postconflict Societies: The Cases of Bosnia, Macedonia, and Kosovo.” In Nationalism After Communism: Lessons Learned edited by Mungiu-Pippidi, Alina and Krastev, Ivan, 231–248. Budapest: Central European University Press.Google Scholar
Bieber, Florian. 2006. “Bosnia-Herzegovina: Slow Progress Towards a Functional State.” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 6 (1): 43–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogaards, Matthijs. 2019. “Formal and Informal Consociational Institutions: A Comparison of the National Pact and the Taif Agreement in Lebanon.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 25 (1): 27–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bojicic-Dzelilovic, Vesna, Ker-Lindsay, James, and Kostovicova, Denisa. 2013. Civil Society and Transitions in the Western Balkans. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bosi, Lorenzo, and Fazio, Gianluca De. 2017. The Troubles in Northern Ireland and Theories of Social Movements. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Byrne, Sean. 2001. “Consociational and Civic Society Approaches to Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland.” Journal of Peace Research 38 (3): 327–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ceka, Besir. 2018. “Macedonia: A New Beginning?” Journal of Democracy 29 (2): 143–157.10.1353/jod.2018.0033CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porta, Della, Donatella, , and Tarrow, Sidney. 1986. “Unwanted Children: Political Violence and the Cycle of Protest in Italy, 1966–1973.” European Journal of Political Research 14 (5-6): 607–632.10.1111/j.1475-6765.1986.tb00852.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porta, Della, Donatella, . 2017. Global Diffusion of Protest: Riding the Protest Wave in the Neoliberal Crisis. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.10.5117/9789462981690CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Palma, Giuseppe. 1991. “Legitimation from the Top to Civil Society: Politico-Cultural Change in Eastern Europe.” World Politics 44 (1): 49–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisinger, Peter K. 1973. “The Conditions of Protest Behavior in American Cities.” American Political Science Review 67 (1): 11–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Jocelyn, and Tonge, Jonathan. 2016. “Partisan and Religious Drivers of Moral Conservatism: Same-Sex Marriage and Abortion in Northern Ireland.” Party Politics, 24 (4): 335–346CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fligstein, Neil, and McAdam, Doug. 2015. A Theory of Fields. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Forde, Susan. 2016. “The Bridge on the Neretva: Stari Most as a Stage of Memory in Post-Conflict Mostar, Bosnia–Herzegovina.” Cooperation and Conflict 51 (4): 467–483.10.1177/0010836716652430CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraenkel, Jon. 2020. “The ‘Uncle Tom’ Dilemma: Minorities in Power-Sharing Arrangements.” International Political Science Review 41 (1): 124–13710.1177/0192512119873103CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glenn, John K. 2003. “Contentious Politics and Democratization: Comparing the Impact of Social Movements on the Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe.” Political Studies 51 (1): 103–120.10.1111/1467-9248.00415CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordy, Eric. 2015. “From Antipolitics to Alterpolitics: Subverting Ethnokleptocracy in Bosnia and Hercegovina.” In Unbribable Bosnia: The Fight for the Commons, edited by Arsenijevic, Damir, 111–118. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft.Google Scholar
Graziadei, Stefan. 2016. “Democracy v Human Rights? The Strasbourg Court and the Challenge of Power Sharing.” European Constitutional Law Review 12 (1): 54–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartzell, Caroline, and Hoddie, Matthew. 2003. “Institutionalizing Peace: Power Sharing and Post-Civil War Conflict Management.” American Journal of Political Science 47 (2): 318–332.10.1111/1540-5907.00022CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasić, Jasmin, and Karabegović, Dženeta. 2018. “Elite Responses to Contentious Politics on the Subnational Level: The 2014 Bosnian Protests.” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 18 (3): 367–380.10.1080/14683857.2018.1489609CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horowitz, Donald L. 1985. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Jasper, J. M., & Duyvendak, J. W. 2015. Players and Arenas: The Interactive Dynamics of Protest. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, Hank, and Noakes, John A.. 2005. Frames of Protest: Social Movements and the Framing Perspective. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.Google Scholar
Jusić, Mirna, and Stojanović, Nenad. 2015. “Minority Rights and Realpolitik: Justice-Based vs. Pragmatic Arguments for Reserving Seats for National Minorities.” Ethnopolitics 14 (4): 404–417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keil, Soeren. 2013. “Europeanization, State-Building and Democratization in the Western Balkans.” Nationalities Papers 41 (3): 343–353.10.1080/00905992.2013.768977CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, Ronan, Pierson, Claire, and Thomson, Jennifer. 2016. “Challenging Identity Hierarchies: Gender and Consociational Power-Sharing.” The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 18 (3): 618–633.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khneisser, Mona. 2018. “The Marketing of Protest and Antinomies of Collective Organization in Lebanon.” Critical Sociology 45 (7-8): 1111–1132.10.1177/0896920518792069CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitschelt, H. 1986. “Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in four Democracies.” British Journal of Political Science, 16 (1): 57–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kriesi, Hanspeter, Koopmans, Ruud, Duyvendak, Jan Willem, and Giugni, Marco G.. 2015. New Social Movements in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kriesi, Hanspeter. “Political Context and Opportunity.” The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements (2004): 67–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurtović, Larisa. 2018. “Conjuring “the People.” Focaal 2018 (80): 43–62.10.3167/fcl.2018.800104CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurtović, Larisa, and Hromadžić, Azra. 2017. “Cannibal States, Empty Bellies: Protest, History and Political Imagination in Post-Dayton Bosnia.” Critique of Anthropology 37 (3): 262–296.10.1177/0308275X17719988CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lai, Daniela. 2020. “Practicing Solidarity: ‘Reconciliation’ and Bosnian Protest Movements.” Ethnopolitics, 19 (2): 168–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luther, Kurt Richard, and Deschouwer, Kris. 1999. Party Elites in Divided Societies: Political Parties in Consociational Democracy. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203279755CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCulloch, Allison. 2012. “Does Moderation Pay? Centripetalism in Deeply Divided Societies.” Ethnopolitics 12 (2): 111–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCulloch, Allison. 2014. “Consociational Settlements in Deeply Divided Societies: The Liberal-Corporate Distinction.” Democratization 21 (3): 501–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McEvoy, Joanne. 2014. Power-Sharing Executives: Governing in Bosnia, Macedonia, and Northern Ireland. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
McFaul, Michael, and Treyger, Elina. 2004. “Civil Society.” In Between Dictatorship and Democracy. Russian Post-Communist Political Reform, edited by McFaul, Michael, Petrov, Nikolai, and Ryabov, Andrei, 135–173. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Google Scholar
Meyer, David S. 2004. “Protest and Political Opportunities.” Annual Review of Sociology 30: 125–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milan, Chiara. 2017. “Reshaping Citizenship through Collective Action: Performative and Prefigurative Practices in the 2013–2014 Cycle of Contention in Bosnia & Hercegovina.” Europe-Asia Studies 69 (9): 1346–1361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milan, Chiara. 2018. “Bosnia and Herzegovina: From Workers’ Strike to Social Uprising.” In The Class Strikes Back edited by Azzellini, Dario N. and Kraft, Michael, 155–175. Nijhoff: Brill.10.1163/9789004291478_009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, David. 2018. “Non-Nationalist Politics in a Bi-National Consociation: The Case of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 24 (3): 336–347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moriarty, Gerry. 2017. “Sinn Féin Withdraws from Stormont Negotiations.” The Irish Times, March 26. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/sinn-f%C3%A9in-withdraws-from-stormont-negotiations-1.3025247.Google Scholar
Mujkić, Asim. 2014a. “Bosnian Days of Reckoning: Review of the Sequence of Protests in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2013–2014.” Southeastern Europe, 40 (2): 217–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mujkić, Asim. 2014b. “The Evolution of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Protests in Five Theses.” In Unbribable Bosnia: The Fight for the Commons, 119–134. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos.Google Scholar
Murtagh, Cera. 2015. “Reaching Across: Institutional Barriers to Cross-Ethnic Parties in Post-Conflict Societies and the Case of Northern Ireland.” Nations and Nationalism 21 (3): 544–565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murtagh, Cera. 2016. “Civic Mobilization in Divided Societies and the Perils of Political Engagement: Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Protest and Plenum Movement.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 22 (2): 149–171.10.1080/13537113.2016.1169060CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murtagh, Cera. 2020. “The Plight of Civic Parties in Divided Societies.” International Political Science Review 41 (1): 73–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagle, John, and Clancy, Mary-Alice C.. 2012. “Constructing a Shared Public Identity in Ethno Nationally Divided Societies: Comparing Consociational and Transformationist Perspectives.” Nations and Nationalism 18 (1): 78–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagle, John, and Fakhoury, Tamirace. 2018. “Between Co-Option and Radical Opposition: A Comparative Analysis of Power-Sharing on Gender Equality and LGBTQ Rights in Northern Ireland and Lebanon.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 24 (1): 82–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagle, John. 2018a. “Beyond Ethnic Entrenchment and Amelioration: An Analysis of Non-Sectarian Social Movements and Lebanon’s Consociationalism.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 41 (7): 1370–1389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagle, John. 2018b. “Crafting Radical Opposition or Reproducing Homonormativity? Consociationalism and LGBT Rights Activism in Lebanon.” Journal of Human Rights 17 (1): 75–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noel, Sid. 2005. From Power Sharing to Democracy: Post-Conflict Institutions in Ethnically Divided Societies, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Flynn, Ian. 2003. “The Problem of Recognizing Individual and National Identities: A Liberal Critique of the Belfast Agreement.” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 6 (3): 129–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oberschall, Anthony. 1973. Social Conflict and Social Movements. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Halls.Google Scholar
Piacentini, Arianna. 2019. “‘Trying to Fit In:’ Multiethnic Parties, Ethno-Clientelism, and Power-Sharing in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 25 (3): 273–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickvance, Christopher G. 1999. “Democratization and the Decline of Social Movements: The Effects of Regime Change on Collective Action in Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and Latin America.” Sociology 33 (2): 353–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polletta, Francesca, and Jasper, James M.. 2001. “Collective Identity and Social Movements.” Annual Review of Sociology 27 (1): 283–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollozhani, Lura. 2016. “The Student Movement in Macedonia 2014-2016.” Südosteuropa Mitteilungen, no. 05–06: 38–45.Google Scholar
Powell, G. Bingham, 2000. Elections as Instruments of Democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Puljek-Shank, Randall, and Verkoren, Willemijn. 2017. “Civil Society in a Divided Society: Linking Legitimacy and Ethnicness of Civil Society Organizations in Bosnia-Herzegovina.” Cooperation and Conflict 52 (2): 184–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riding, James. 2018. “A New Regional Geography of a Revolution: Bosnia’s Plenum Movement.” Territory, Politics, Governance 6 (1): 16–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sircar, Indraneel. 2019. “Linking Active and Activist Citizens: Electoral Change and the Bosnian Plenums.” Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties: 1–21.Google Scholar
Stojanović, Nenad. 2017. “Political Marginalization of ‘Others’ in Consociational Regimes.” Zeitschrift Für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, 12 (2): 341–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarrow, Sidney. 1989. “Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics. Cambridge.” Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tarrow, Sidney. 1993. “Cycles of Collective Action: Between Moments of Madness and the Repertoire of Contention.” Social Science History 17 (2): 281–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarrow, Sidney, and Tilly, Charles. 2007. “Contentious Politics and Social Movements.” In The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics, edited by Boix, Carles and Stokes, Susan C..Google Scholar
Taylor, Rupert. 2009. “The Injustice of a Consociational Solution to the Northern Ireland Problem.” In Consociational Theory: McGarry and O’Leary and the Northern Ireland Conflict edited by Taylor, Rupert, 309–329. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, Jennifer. 2016. “Abortion and Same-Sex Marriage: How Are Non-Sectarian Controversial Issues Discussed in Northern Irish Politics?” Irish Political Studies 31 (4): 483–501.10.1080/07907184.2015.1103226CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Touquet, Heleen, and Vermeersch, Peter. 2016. “Changing Frames of Reconciliation the Politics of Peace-Building in the Former Yugoslavia.” East European Politics & Societies 30 (1): 55–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Touquet, Heleen. 2015. “Non-Ethnic Mobilization in Deeply Divided Societies, the Case of the Sarajevo Protests.” Europe-Asia Studies 67 (3): 388–408.10.1080/09668136.2015.1019430CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Meer, Tom WG, Van Deth, Jan W., and Scheepers, Peer LH. 2009. “The Politicized Participant: Ideology and Political Action in 20 Democracies.” Comparative Political Studies 42 (11): 1426–1457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and Brady, Henry E.. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Nie, Norman H., and Kim, Jae-on. 1978. A Seven Nation Comparison: Participation and Political Equality. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vráblíková, Kateřina. 2014. “How Context Matters? Mobilization, Political Opportunity Structures, and Nonelectoral Political Participation in Old and New Democracies.” Comparative Political Studies 47 (2): 203–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar