ABSTRACT
Introduction: political change in consensus democracies In the turbulent modern world, the statecraft required to achieve political, economic, social and cultural stability within democracies has become an indispensable aspect of politics (Rosenau 1990). Beginning in the sixteenth century, polities have increasingly operated in a global capitalist world economy. This is highly significant: modern capitalism must be regarded as a civilisation and, as such, as a unique form of political, social and economic organisation. Consensus democracies are a product of this civilisation, arising from the importance of economic rationality in the way in which politics is framed (Braudel 1979). Since the 1980s, but particularly following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, no country in the world – even closed political systems such as North Korea and Iran – has been able to escape the impact of systems that combine a liberal market economy with a liberal democracy. Such polities represent outcomes of this capitalist civilisation as well as the influence of a highly interdependent world system. Financial capitalism and new technologies have contributed substantially to these changes (the best studies on this latest trend are Castells 1996, 1997, 1998). In this context of a globalised world economy and a widespread model of liberal democracy, the small European democracies of West Central Europe and the Nordic countries have been remarkable examples of success in reconciling the two phenomena. These states are all characterised by a consensus approach to democracy, which is distinct from the Anglo-Saxon model of majoritarian democracy. The peak of this consensual style of politics was in the 1950s and 1960s, when these small democracies managed to achieve both a strong economy and a strong democracy. Through an unconscious (or, more likely, conscious) strategic choice resulting from alliances between political parties, this balance between economy and democracy allowed the creation of relatively egalitarian societies by means of strong welfare states. There was also a process by which politics acted against the markets in order to tame capitalism, as seen in the Nordic countries (Esping-Andersen 1985). However, in the 1970s and 1980s, domestic social changes and new forces of globalisation led to major challenges for consensus democracies. Internally, demographic changes bringing about an ageing society paired with the emergence of a
more heterogeneous and multicultural population contributed to the emergence of new political parties and social movements that advocated either greater inclusion and internationalisation (mainly Green parties) or the exclusion of immigrants and the protection of nationals (mainly new or extreme Right parties). Externally, globalisation increased pressures on national political and economic systems. The political statecraft required to strategically manage these small European democracies became more complex. Since the 1980s, Europeanisation has become an important strategic element utilised by small European democracies to protect themselves from the more challenging pressures of globalisation. This book seeks to analyse these processes of what I call the political craft of ‘re-equilibration’ in small European democracies in the context of a turbulent world (for a similar argument based on the Netherlands, see Touwen 2014). Although the political economy of small democracies is a crucial variable, we are primarily interested in the political restructuring and re-equilibration of consensus democracies between the oil crisis of 1973 and the present. This longitudinal approach is conducive to developing a better understanding of continuity and change over time in the consensual style of politics in Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland. We argue that democratic consensus politics (including consultation, cooperation and compromise) is a way of life in these countries, such that conflict is resolved through these mechanisms. Although these countries are losing their consociational character (Lijphart 1977, 2008: ch. 2), they have internalised many of the devices created during the golden age of consensus democracies, when they were divided and segmented societies. This chapter starts with an exploration of the concept of consensus democracy. Subsequently, we discuss the political craft of ‘re-equilibration’ exercised by political elites in the context of a chaotic world. We allude here to the concept of strategic management, a term that is quite common in business studies, vesting it with a political character. After all, strategy is a key element of political manoeuvring. The third section addresses the dimensions of political change over the past 40 years. We refer to this as the ‘great transformation of the late twentieth century’, a hypothesis influenced by Karl Polanyi’s masterpiece The Great Transformation (1944). Finally, some conclusions will be drawn.
