Civics

1-Power Sharing
- By Supriya Waghmode

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.

OR( u all can use below tabular format to understand )

• Out of its total population in Belgium:

Percentage of Region they live in Languages they

People speak
59 Flemish Dutch
40 Wallonia French
1 Belgians German
 • In its capital city, Brussels:

Percentage Languae they speak

80 French
20 Dutch

• Tensions emerged between the Dutch-speaking and

French-speaking communities during the 1950s and 1960s.
• Differences between the French and the Dutch-speaking
communities were:
French- Speaking Dutch-Speaking Community
community
They are the minority in the They form the majority, but
country, but rich and got the benefit of economic
powerful. development and education
much later.
They are in majority in the They continued to be the
capital. majority in the country, but
a minority in the capital.
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 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.

OR( u all can use below tabular format to understand )

• Sri Lanka is an island nation with twice the population of

Belgium.
• It has diverse population with:
 Percentage of Languages they Religion they
people speak follow
74 Sinhala Buddhists
18 Tamil Hindu or Muslims
7 Sinhala & Tamil Christians

• In Sri Lanka, There are two subgroups among Tamils-

Percentage Groups Origin

13 Sri Lankan Tamils Natives of Sri
Lanka
4 Indian Tamils Natives of India
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.

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

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:

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 the federal government.
3. 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.
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.