Segmented Pluralism: Ideological Cleavages and Political Cohesion in the Smaller European Democracies

Abstract

In an era of political and scholarly concern with national integration, pluralism serves as one historic model of the attempt to reconcile religious and ideological diversity with civic cohesion. Segmented pluralism is the organization of social movements, educational and communications systems, voluntary associations, and political parties along the lines of religious and ideological cleavages. It is pluralist in its recognition of diversity of religious, socioeconomic, and political affiliations; it is segmented in its institutionalization of most other forms of association along the lines of politico-religious cleavages. A social or cultural organization is segmented if it is composed chiefly of, and directed by, members of one of several churches or Weltanschauungsgruppen (or families spirituelles). I distinguish organization from what I shall call functional organization. In functional organizations people associate only in terms of a specific economic or social purpose. Thus, a trade union organized solely on lines of skill or industry or employer unit is a functional organization, while a Catholic or Protestant or Socialist trade union is a organization. A Boy Scout or Girl Scout troop organized only by age or locality is functional; but a Catholic or Protestant or Socialist Scout troop is segmented.