Risks of consociative democracy in Belgium

The aim of the article is determination of the ability of consociational democracy to transform and manage ethnopolitical conflict. The Belgian case is examined in the context of the development of consociationalism mechanisms, which led to the institutionalization of the political structure in the form of a federal state. The author notes that consociationalism in Belgium has undergone an important metamorphosis: from the classical type, based on ideological foundations, to the federal type, based on territorial division. The author further assesses the extent to which the principles of consociational democracy continue to guide contemporary Belgian politics. Based on the analysis of four institutional criteria of consociationalism, the author concludes that the very institutional structure of consociational federalism in Belgium can significantly undermine the potential for peaceful resolution of the conflict in the long term.