Contesting power-sharing: contentious politics in divided societies

This introduction outlines an agenda for research on protest and power-sharing. Power-sharing scholarship has ignored grassroots contentious politics, viewing protest as a threat to the top-down model of consociationalism. Protest is thus seen as a destabilizing force, narrowing the ground needed for power-sharing elites to engage in moderative behaviour required for peace. This introductory article argues that citizen-led protest represents a broad spectrum of approaches to power-sharing, ranging from support to outright opposition. In this way, rather than simply a subverting type of politics, protest is a major arena for struggles for democracy in power-sharing systems.