Consociational democracy
A form of power sharing that enables politically or ethnically heterogeneous societies to function democratically by overcoming the centrifugal forces through attitudes and behaviours of cooperation among leaders from different pillars of society. According to Arend Lijphart, Consociational democracy has four key characteristics which by deviation from the rules of majority democracy could provide increased stability to divided or multicultural societies:
– Mutual veto,
– Segmental autonomy (átkötés az autonómia címszóra)
By overruling the basic principle of majoritarian democracy, Consociational democracy deforms decision making to increase social stability and contribute to the preservation of state unity. Consociational democracy can lead to the paralysation of the country or region if there is no mutual trust between the parties concerned (Cyprus between 1960 and 1963), or the vision of the parties irreconcilably exclude each other (Northern Ireland).