222 WORLD POLITICS approval of the principle of government by elite cartel.This is a very obvious factor,but it is of considerable importance and deserves to be mentioned briefly.For example,Switzerland has a long and strong tradition of grand coalition executives,and this has immeasurably strengthened Swiss consociational democracy.On the other hand,the grand coalition in Austria was under constant attack by critics who alleged that the absence of a British-style opposition made Austrian politics"undemocratic."This attests to the strength of the British sys- tem as a normative model even in fragmented political systems,where the model is inappropriate and undermines the attempt to achieve political stability by consociational means. CENTRIPETAL AND CENTRIFUGAL DEMOCRACIES An examination of the other two types of the threefold typology of democracies in the light of the distinguishing characteristics of con- sociational democracy can contribute to the clarification and refinement of all three types and their prerequisites.In order to avoid any un- intended geographical connotation,we shall refer to the homogeneous and stable democracies as the centripetal (instead of the Anglo-Ameri- can)democracies,and to the fragmented and unstable ones as the centrifugal (instead of the Continental European)democracies.The centrifugal democracies include the French Third and Fourth Repub- lics,Italy,Weimar Germany,the Austrian First Republic,and the short-lived Spanish Republic of the early 1930's.The major examples of centripetal democracy are Great Britain,the Old Commonwealth countries,the United States,Ireland,the Scandinavian states,and the postwar Bonn Republic in Germany. The French Fourth Republic is often regarded as the outstanding example of unstable,ineffective,and immobilist democracy,but the explanation of its political instability in terms of cultural fragmentation has been criticized on two grounds.In the first place,Eric A.Nord- linger rejects the argument that the"ideological inundation of French politics"and its "fragmented party system"were responsible for its chronic instability;he states that this explanation conveniently over- looks "the way in which the game of politics is actually played in France.Although ideologism pervades the parties'electoral and propa- ganda efforts,this public ideological posturing of French politicians does not prevent them from playing out their game of compromise in the Assembly and its couloirs.In fact,the political class thinks of com- promise as a positive principle of action,with parliamentary activity