Patterns of democracy reconsidered : the ambiguous relationship between corporatism and consensualism

Lijphart’s Patterns of Democracy, similar to most of his work, elicited fierce scientific debate. We replicate some of the analyses proposed in its second edition (2012) in the light of the critiques of the first edition (2009). We primarily examine the relationship between institutional setup and interest group representation, disentangling the effect of consensualism from that of corporatism on issues such as macroeconomic performance and governance capabilities. We further deepen our understanding of the complex causal mechanisms connecting these variables, proposing a more sophisticated empirical investigation that emphasizes selection effects and conjunctural causation.