AKC 8 General – Spring Term 2011 – Conflicts & Conflict Resolution
14/03/11
AKC 8 – 14 March 2011
Conflicts & Conflict Resolution
Lecture 8: Power-Sharing in Divided Societies
Dr Michael Kerr, Department of Middle East and Mediterranean Studies, KCL
Definitions
Ethnic conflict: Ethnic conflict: war, civil war, or other conflict between or among
two or more racial, linguistic, or religious groups.
Ethno-national conflict: territorial conflict between rival nationalist groups,
commonly within but not exclusively within the same state.
Power-sharing: a political arrangement in which opposing groups in a society
participate in government.
Consociational democracy: a form of government involving guaranteed group
representation. It is often suggested for managing conflict in deeply divided societies.
It is often viewed as synonymous with power-sharing, although it is technically only
one form of power-sharing.
‘political consociation regulates difference in a state or region within which two or
more cultural or ethnic or national communities peaceably co-exist, with none being
institutionally superior to the others, and in which the relevant communities cooperate politically through self-government and shared government.’ (Brendan
O’Leary)
How does power-sharing work?
According to Arend Lijphart, a complete democratic consociational government must
have a grand coalition of the political leaders of all significant segments of the plural
society, a high degree of autonomy for each segment, the use of proportionality
principles and the existence of mutual vetoes. Lijphart argues that the success or
failure of consociational democracy is dependent on the presence or absence of a
number of political variables.
1. Segmental isolation of the ethnic communities;
2. A multiple balance of power between the ethnic
3. communities;
4. External threats common to the ethnic communities;
5. Overarching national loyalties to the state;
6. A tradition of elite accommodation;
7. Socio-economic equality;
8. Small population size providing small government
9. workload;
10. A moderate multi-party system with segmental
AKC 8 General – Spring Term 2011 – Conflicts & Conflict Resolution
14/03/11
Case Studies
Northern Ireland
 Partition of Ireland 1920-21
 Beginning of ‘The Troubles’ 1969
 Direct rule from Westminster imposed on Northern Ireland in 1972
 The Sunningdale Agreement of 1973 leads to the establishment of a powersharing executive
 Ulster Workers’ Council Strike of May 1974 brings down the executive
 The 1998 Belfast Agreement (Good Friday Agreement)
Lebanon
 Lebanon comes under the French Mandate 1920
 The 1943 National Pact leads to independence
 1958 civil war
 National pact collapses - civil war 1975-89
 1989 Ta’if Accords end Lebanon’s civil war
 1990-2005 Lebanon governed under Syrian control
 2005 Prime Minister Rafic Hariri assassinated
 2005-11 Lebanon in limbo
Some questions to think about.

How do divided societies such as Northern Ireland and Lebanon end up with
power-sharing systems?
 Why was there no winner in these civil conflicts?
 What are the determining factors that enable us to judge whether powersharing may be successful in regulating political violence in divided societies?
 What does comparative politics tell us about this process?
 Why would groups in conflict over the same contested space agree to share
ownership of that territory?
 What role do external actors play in the making and breaking of power-sharing
arrangements in divided societies?
 Why did Northern Ireland and Lebanon return to power-sharing after their
civil conflicts?
Key Readings
Lijphart, Arend, Democracy in Plural Societies (Yale University Press, 1977);
‘Consociational Democracy’ World Politics, 21:2, 1969, pp 207-25
Kerr, Michael, Imposing Power-Sharing: Conflict and Coexistence in Northern
Ireland and Lebanon (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2006)
O’Leary, Brendan & McGarry, John, The Politics of Antagonism: Understanding
Northern Ireland (London: Athlone Press 1996)
Picard, Elizabeth, Lebanon: A Shattered Country, (New York: Holmes & Meir, 1996)
Winslow, Charles, Lebanon: War and Politics in a Fragmented Society, (London:
Routledge, 1996)
 The AKC Examination :Friday, 1st April,14.30-16.30
 Last year’s exam paper: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/about/structure/dean/akc/archive