ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the existence of the ontological realist approach in the discourses of ethnic elites. Nonsectarian social movements promoting plural identities and political projects confront major obstacles within a consociational framework that protects the interests of ethnic elites. For social movements to effectively gain access to the political system, they are required to first go through the communal leaders in control of the relevant state and public institutions at both the national and local level. The infrastructure of consociationalism certainly permeates deeply into the very fabric of nonsectarian civil society. The capacity of consociationalism to allow sectarian elites to capture public and private institutions is an important issue in relation to peacebuilding. Consociationalism in post-war divided societies is adopted in the expectation that elite-level coalescent behaviour will eventually nurture a culture of trust between opposing ethnic factions.
