Push Factors towards Consociational Democracy in Plural Sub National Polities: The Case of Mandera County, Kenya

Consociational democracy has been advanced as the antidote to politically motivated violent conflicts in plural societies because of its strong support for inclusion of all significant segments in the population. This variant of democracy is advanced as favoring peace and stability. The focus of research has however tended to be on heterogeneity at the national level. Little research exists to examine the pull factors towards consociational democracy at the sub-national polities, most of which exhibit heterogeneity within homogeneity, thanks to gerrymandering by the political elite during the review of boundaries. This study which is anchored on the social capital theory, argues that social-cultural networks at the sub-national level strongly influence support for consociational democracy which is organized along ethnic identities. Instructively, the primordial and instrumental identities are used simultaneously depending on what the concerned social group(s) intend to achieve.