Johannes Althusius was one of the first who, to a certain sense, drew conclusions on a
desirable way of association from the conditions in Germany and Holland. His theory
encouraged Otto von Gierke to start advocating a modern variant of pluralism to be soon
transferred to England where it produced the best theoretical fruits.5
In any case,
Althusius advocates the so-called associativistic theory, pluralism, a kind of compound
contracting community within which parts participate in establishing and administering the whole.6
Althusius is frequently referred to nowadays by the advocates of the consocial
democracy in the pluralistic, divided and multicultural societies.