Which countries could have implemented Confessionnalism ?

Confessionnalism is, in short, the proportional distribution of political and institutional power among communities of different religions.

For instance, in the 19th Century, the Ottoman Parliament did a thing of the sort with allocation of seats specifically to religious minorities present in the empire.

Could it have happened earlier? in other countries? And through different shapes?
 
Switzerland, maybe? The Catholic/Reformed split dominated Swiss politics for centuries after all, eventually leading to civil war in the 19th century. The Netherlands could count as well, if they keep Belgium.
 
Russia after an alternate Revolution ? Though it might be more about ethnic minorities, than religious minorities there.
China (also after an alternate Xinhai Revolution) ?
 
A surviving Poland-Lithuania would have a strong tradition of parliamentism and ample orthodox, protestant, jewish and possibly muslim minorities to open it up to.
 
This was more or less the Netherlands and Belgium under pillarization IOTL, wasn't it?
Not officialy. Everyone* was allowed to vote for whoever he or she wanted. A Catholic could vote for a Protestant candidate. It was social pressure that prevented them doing so. There was not some rule in place that X amount of parliament seats were dedicated to protestants, another amount of seats were dedicated to catholics, etc. And because it was just social pressure, the entire system collapsed around the 60's and 70's of the 20th century.


*Well everyone who actualy was allowed to vote
 
Not officialy. Everyone* was allowed to vote for whoever he or she wanted. A Catholic could vote for a Protestant candidate. It was social pressure that prevented them doing so. There was not some rule in place that X amount of parliament seats were dedicated to protestants, another amount of seats were dedicated to catholics, etc.

So, like Northern Ireland, then. :winkytongue:

And because it was just social pressure, the entire system collapsed around the 60's and 70's of the 20th century.

Shame Norn Iron hasn't managed that...
 
The kingdom of Serbs, Croats & Slovenes (Yugoslavia). Confessionalism in the Socialist state is unlikely, due to the secular nature of the government, but Yugoslavia is pretty likely.

Also India maybe...
 
The OTL standard example is, of course, Lebanon, and while not official to the same degree, many elements of that are present in Iraq after the US invasion (to be fair, some features of Lebanese confessional system are not actually enshrined in law, as opposed to entrenched political tradition and compromise). You could argue that Iran is a confessionalist state too as well as the state is constitutionally ruled on the basis of a version of Muslim Shiite doctrine while some religious minorities have a protected special legal status in some matters and reserved political representation while enjoying, in theory, the same political rights as anyone else. But these minorities are fairly tiny. I understand that, while it has a very strong ethnic dimension, the legal distinction between Malay Muslim Bumiputra and Indian and Chinese immigrants in Malaysia could be construed as a form of confessionalism, at least in some periods.
A similar argument, while things are a lot less official there, could be made that Israel has elements of a confessionalist system as well.
Syria is a plausible place for such a system to arise, even more so if you have a Greater Syria that includes Lebanon. And independent Kashmir or an independent, united Bengal also seem realistic places where confessional indentity could end up being officially enshrined in politics. Also, maybe, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka.
 
Last edited:
Yugoslavia is a good target. Many different religions.

The kingdom of Serbs, Croats & Slovenes (Yugoslavia). Confessionalism in the Socialist state is unlikely, due to the secular nature of the government, but Yugoslavia is pretty likely.

Also India maybe...

The Balkans would definitely be an interesting region for that ! Actually I wonder if that would be even locally possible while under Austro-Hungarian rule.

... Speaking of which, I wonder how plausible it would be for Austro Hungarian empire as a whole to go for that philosophy in the XIXth century, considering the diversity of countries it held (though on the other hand being traditionally at the helm of the HRE).
 
to
The Balkans would definitely be an interesting region for that ! Actually I wonder if that would be even locally possible while under Austro-Hungarian rule.

... Speaking of which, I wonder how plausible it would be for Austro Hungarian empire as a whole to go for that philosophy in the XIXth century, considering the diversity of countries it held (though on the other hand being traditionally at the helm of the HRE).

It's possible. They did offer all sorts of small concessions minorities (with the exception of Hungary who got a lot, of course) in an attempt to keep the empire together.

I can see them guaranteeing seats in parliament to Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Greek Catholics (from Galicia), Jews & Muslims.

However, the problem in A-H was more ethnic than religious, so they're more likely to guarantee seats to ethnic groups (especially since the Croats are catholic, so they would likely end up getting no more representation than before. The Austrians wouldn't like this, since the Croats were very loyal, and very useful to the empire, and were given a lot of freedom OTL). Also, the Austrians wouldn't want to create unity between the Slavs in any way (a Serb and a Ukrainian could both be Orthodox, and lumping them together brings them closer together), they were dependent on divide and rule tactics.

The reason confessionalism could work so well in Yugoslavia is that (please don't kill me) Serbs (and Montenegrins), Croats, and Bosniaks are pretty much all the same ethnically (their cultures vary as much as say Bavarian Culture does from Westphalian culture and they speak the same language (I'm not going to go into what name is appropriate for that language, but it is the same)). Their only real difference (and I'm not saying it's a small one, it's proven itself to be quite significant) is religion. Guaranteeing autonomy to religious minorities, rather than declaring them separate ethnicities helps both the state and the minority groups. Bosniaks (Muslims) and Croats (Catholics) are still guaranteed representation, and (ideally) are not overshadowed by the Orthodox Christian Serbian majority. Meanwhile, these groups still think of themselves as ethnically unified, creating less division between them and (potentially) allowing the state to exist longer.

To summarize: Confessionalism works better in Yugoslavia, where the main difference is religion than it would in Austria-Hungary, where there are many very different ethnic groups of the same religion. Though protestant Germans could be guaranteed seats in parliament while the rest of the "reserved" seats are divided by ethnicity.
 
Some Indian Kingdoms, or united Indian subcontinent. I think Nepal could've reached an agreement between Buddhists and Hindus instead of forcing the buddhists out
 
Top