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Gr 10 Notes DP CH-1 POWER SHARING

The document discusses power sharing in Belgium and Sri Lanka, highlighting Belgium's successful model of accommodating linguistic communities through equal representation and separate governments, which helped avoid conflict. In contrast, Sri Lanka's majoritarianism led to discrimination against the Tamil community, resulting in civil war and significant social upheaval. It emphasizes the importance of power sharing for reducing conflict and ensuring democratic governance, outlining various forms of power sharing in modern democracies.

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39 views4 pages

Gr 10 Notes DP CH-1 POWER SHARING

The document discusses power sharing in Belgium and Sri Lanka, highlighting Belgium's successful model of accommodating linguistic communities through equal representation and separate governments, which helped avoid conflict. In contrast, Sri Lanka's majoritarianism led to discrimination against the Tamil community, resulting in civil war and significant social upheaval. It emphasizes the importance of power sharing for reducing conflict and ensuring democratic governance, outlining various forms of power sharing in modern democracies.

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CH-1 POWER SHARING

POLITICAL SCIENCE GRADE-10


IMPORTANT NOTES SOCIAL SCIENCE

Ethnic composition 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% speaks 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.

1. 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.
2. The state governments are not subordinate to the Central Government.
3. Brussels has a separate government in which both communities have equal
representation.
4. Apart from the Central and the State Government, 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.
Sri Lanka
ETHNIC COMPOSITION OF SRILANKA
Sri Lanka is an island nation having a population of 2 crores, about the same as in
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 of 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 had 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 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 struggles
for the recognition of Tamil as an official language, for regional autonomy and 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 of both the 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 dealt 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?

1. Power sharing is good because it helps to reduce the possibility of conflict between
social groups.
2. 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.
Forms of Power Sharing

In modern democracies, power sharing can take many forms, as mentioned below:

1. 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.
2. 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 federal government.
3. Power may also be shared among different social groups such as the 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 in
power.
4. 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.

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