ABSTRACT
The statecraft of consensus democracies in West Central Europe Consensus democracies did not emerge out of nowhere but through a lengthy process of giving and taking without winners, but also without losers. This is the essence of the consensus model: advanced rationalised and mature democratic behaviour moulded by a storehouse of collective experiences of trial, error and learning, as exemplified by the five democracies of West Central Europe. Four of them – Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland – were shaped by a long-term continuous process of democratisation. Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have had only two brief interruptions in their political systems, namely during German occupation in the First and Second World Wars. Switzerland was able to maintain its neutrality during these periods, whereas Austria emerged from the Second World War only to be annexed by the Third Reich in 1938. Prior to 1918, Austria was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which significantly influenced its later development. In this context, Austria is an excellent example of a true shift from a conflictive political culture in the First Republic (1918-1934) to a consensual culture after the Second World War. Although historicism should be avoided – and it must be noted that these West Central European consensus democracies emerged out of contingent situations – the stability of political elites and subcultural patterns allowed sufficient time for learning and consolidating the practices of consensus, consultation, cooperation, concertation and compromise. This process took place in parallel with and surrounded by key European developments that led to industrialisation and the modern state, namely the triangle of the ‘big three’: France, the United Kingdom and Germany.
