The adoption problem is really a congeries of bargaining problems.
A quick but incomplete enumeration should suffice to indicate the obstacles
to adoption of either consociational or centripetal institutions.
First, there are asymmetric preferences. Majorities want majority
rule; minorities want guarantees against majority rule. Consequently,
minorities may prefer consociation; majorities do not. So a consociational
regime can be adopted only when majorities (or large pluralities)
are momentarily weak, often after periods of extended violence. At a
later stage, when majorities regain their strength, they may overthrow
it, as Greek Cypriots did in 1963 and as the Hutu in Burundi might be
inclined to do now.