The (In)Significant Other: Experiencing the ‘politics of exclusion’

Consociationalism has long dominated the literature on conflict regulation in so-called deeply divided societies. Through the institutionalisation of inter-group competition and minority protection, consociational systems attempt to push the conflict between "salient" ethnic groups into the institutional realm. Yet, although consociationalism holds the potential to foster democratic stability, a growing scholarship holds that consociationalism comes at the price of excluding Others, that is (non-)recognised minorities. The act of exclusion is primarily seen through an initial lack of institutional recognition and a persistent lack of representation. This paper, however, argues that the situation is much more dynamic and self-reinforcing. Based on 50 in-depth interviews, the paper analyses the perceived meaning of specific policies and related political discourse and uses the lenses of interpretive policy feedback to highlight the causal mechanisms behind "Others’" feeling of ‘not being represented’. Through divergences in perceived meaning it introduces nuances on the axis of ‘feeling represented’ regarding different groups of Others, such as citizens with a history of second- or third-generation migration and low-economic income.