Consociationalism in Belgium

Belgium is the longest continuing consociation in the world. Its politicians have used consociationalism to accommodate the economic and religious cleavage since 1918 and the linguistic cleavage since 1970. This chapter examines these experiences under the heading of consociationalism 1.0 and 2.0. This first part of the chapter shows how political accommodation provides the framework for the resolution of social conflict and how consociationalism has become institutionalized. The following section, on avenues for future research, formulates lessons about and from Belgium. One lesson is about the ability to keep reinventing consociationalism. The chapter concludes with an exploration of consociationalism 3.0. It discusses problems and prospects, including the ongoing process of state reform and federalization.