CONSENSUS AND CONSENSUS DEMOCRACY - CULTURAL, STRUCTURAL, FUNCTIONAL,AND RATIONAL-CHOICE EXPLANATIONS - LECTURE GIVEN BY THE WINNER OF THEJOHAN-SKYTTE-PRIZE IN POLITICAL-SCIENCE, UPPSALA, OCTOBER 4, 1997

Five examples of the origin, operation, and consequences of consensus democracy and closely related democratic forms (the politics of accomm odation, consociational democracy, and power-sharing democracy) illust rate the relative strengths of cultural, structural, functional, and r ational-choice explanations. The examples show that each of these expl anations plays a crucial role in at least one of the five situations. Hence they suggest that it is unwise to assume that one particular app roach predominates to such an extent that it should be the ruling para digm for political research.