CBSE Notes Class
10 Political Science Chapter 1 – Power Sharing
Story of Belgium
Belgium is a small country in Europe with a population of
over 1 crore, about half the population of Haryana. Of the country’s total
population, 59% speak the Dutch language, 40% of people speak French, and the
remaining 1% speak German. Look at the map below to know the language variation
of Belgium. The minority French-speaking community was rich and powerful, so
they got the benefit of economic development and education. This created
tensions between the Dutch-speaking and French-speaking communities during the
1950s and 1960s.
Accommodation in Belgium
In Belgium, the government handled the community difference
very well. Between 1970 and 1993, Belgian leaders amended their constitution
four times and came up with a new model to run the government.
Here are some of the elements of the Belgian model.
- The
Constitution prescribes that the number of Dutch and French-speaking
ministers shall be equal in the Central Government. Some special laws
require the support of the majority of members from each linguistic group.
Thus, no single community can make decisions unilaterally.
- The
state governments are not subordinate to the Central Government.
- Brussels
has a separate government in which both communities have equal
representation.
- Apart
from the Central and the State Governments, there is a third kind of
government. This ‘community government’ is elected by people belonging to
one language community – Dutch, French and German-speaking – no matter
where they live. This government has the power regarding cultural,
educational and language-related issues.
The Belgium model was very complicated, but it helped to
avoid civic strife between the two major communities.
Story of Sri Lanka
Now, let’s take the situation of another country, Sri Lanka.
It is an island nation having a population of 2 crores, about the same as
Haryana. Sri Lanka has a diverse population. The major social groups are the
Sinhala speakers (74%) and the Tamil speakers (18%). Among Tamils, there are
two subgroups, “Sri Lankan Tamils” and “Indian Tamils”. You can see the map
below to know the population distribution of different communities in Sri
Lanka.
In Sri Lanka, the Sinhala community enjoyed the bigger
majority and imposed its will on the entire country.
Majoritarianism in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka emerged as an independent country in 1948. The
Sinhala community was in the majority, so they formed the government. They also
followed preferential policies that favoured Sinhala applicants for university
positions and government jobs. These measures taken by the government gradually
increased the feeling of alienation among the Sri Lankan Tamils. Sri Lankan
Tamils felt that the Constitution and government policies denied them equal
political rights, discriminated against them in getting jobs and other
opportunities and ignored their interests. Due to this, the relationship
between the Sinhala and Tamil communities become poor. Sri Lankan Tamils
launched parties and struggled for the recognition of Tamil as an official
language, for regional autonomy and for equality of opportunity in securing
education and jobs. But their demand was repeatedly denied by the government.
The distrust between the two communities turned into widespread conflict and
turned into a civil war. As a result, thousands of people from both communities
have been killed. Many families were forced to leave the country as refugees,
and many more lost their livelihoods. The civil war ended in 2009 and caused a
terrible setback to the social, cultural and economic life of the country.
What have you learned from the stories of Belgium and Sri
Lanka?
- Both
countries are democracies, but they deal differently with the concept of
power-sharing.
- In
Belgium, the leaders have realised that the unity of the country is
possible only by respecting the feelings and interests of different
communities and regions. This resulted in mutually acceptable arrangements
for sharing power.
- Sri
Lanka shows that if a majority community wants to force its dominance over
others and refuses to share power, it can undermine the unity of the
country.
Why is power sharing desirable?
You will find the answer to this question in the points
below.
- Power
sharing is good because it helps to reduce the possibility of conflict
between social groups.
- The
second reason is that a democratic rule involves sharing power with those
affected by its exercise and who have to live with its effects. People
have a right to be consulted on how they are to be governed.
Let us call the first set of reasons Prudential and
the second moral. The prudential reasons stress that power-sharing will bring
out better outcomes, whereas the moral reasons emphasise the act of
power-sharing as valuable.
Form of Power Sharing
Most of you must think that sharing power = dividing power =
weakening the country. A similar thing was believed in the past. It was assumed
that all the power of a government must reside in one person or group of
persons located in one place. Otherwise, it would be very difficult to make
quick decisions and to enforce them. But these notions have changed with the
emergence of democracy. In a democracy, people rule themselves through
institutions of self-government. Everyone has a voice in the shaping of public
policies. Therefore, in a democratic country, political power should be
distributed among citizens.
In modern democracies, power sharing can take many forms, as
mentioned below:
- Power
is shared among different organs of government, such as the legislature,
executive and judiciary. This is called horizontal distribution of
power because it allows different organs of government placed at the same
level to exercise different powers. Such separation ensures that none of
the organs can exercise unlimited power. Each organ checks the others.
This arrangement is called a system of checks and balances.
- Power
can be shared among governments at different levels – a general
government for the entire country and governments at the provincial or
regional level, which is called the federal government.
- Power
may also be shared among different social groups, such as
religious and linguistic groups. ‘Community government’ in Belgium is a
good example of this arrangement. This method is used to give minority
communities a fair share of power.
- Power
sharing arrangements can also be seen in the way political parties,
pressure groups and movements control or influence those in
power. When two or more parties form an alliance to contest elections, and
if they get elected, they form a coalition government and thus share
power.
