| Abstract: | Except for the time of its painful—consociational—birth,federalism in its theory and practice does not entail a rejectionof a majoritarian mode of decisionmaking. Differently at differenttimes on different issues decisional modes will most probablyvary along a continuum from consociationalism to majority rule.When the governing elites adopt consociational practices, withregard to some issues, such practices result from factors otherthan the federal nature of the system. Most of these factorswould lead to consociationalism in a unitary system as well.In contrast, consociationalism is bound to be the dominant decisionalmode in loose confederations, including those whose componentunits do not practice consociational or majoritarian democracyeither within their own confines or at the confederal summit. |
