Power Sharing

The chapter Power Sharing introduces students to the central idea of democratic politics by contrasting the experiences of two countries, Belgium and Sri Lanka. Belgium is a small country in Europe with a complex ethnic composition: 59 per cent of its population in the Flemish region speaks Dutch, 40 per cent in the Wallonia region speaks French, and 1 per cent speaks German, while in the capital Brussels, 80 per cent speak French and 20 per cent Dutch. Tensions between the wealthier French-speaking minority and the numerically larger Dutch-speaking community led Belgian leaders to amend their Constitution four times between 1970 and 1993 to evolve an innovative model of power sharing. The arrangement provides equal representation to French and Dutch speakers in the central government, transfers many powers to state governments of the regions, gives Brussels a separate government with equal representation, and creates a third kind of government called the Community Government elected by people belonging to one language community to deal with cultural, educational and language issues. Sri Lanka, in contrast, adopted a majoritarian path. After independence in 1948, the Sinhala-dominated government passed the Sinhala Only Act of 1956 making Sinhala the sole official language, followed by preferential policies in jobs and education for the Sinhala majority and the recognition of Buddhism as the state religion. These measures alienated the Sri Lankan Tamils, who launched parties and struggles that escalated into a civil war. Through these contrasting cases, the chapter argues that power sharing is desirable for both prudential reasons (it reduces conflict and ensures stability) and moral reasons (it is the very spirit of democracy). It explains four forms: horizontal sharing among legislature, executive and judiciary; vertical sharing among different levels of government like federal, state and local; sharing among different social groups like religious and linguistic communities; and sharing among political parties, pressure groups and movements.