ABSTRACT
In essence, the consociational model seeks to elucidate two aspects of the political architecture of democracies with deeply divided societies. The first relates to the political sociology of these societies, which the model characterises as comprising vertically encapsulated and mutually hostile political subcultures (or ‘pillars’). The second focus of the model is upon the accommodating behaviour of the subcultural political elites, whose co-operation provides a metaphorical ‘arch’, which spans the divide between the pillars and thus helps ensure the political system’s stability. The introductory chapter to this volume spells out the framework for the analysis of parties and party systems in consociational democracies which the author has deduced from Lijphart’s initial model. The aim of this chapter is to use the Austrian case to test the value of that framework.1
