Power Sharing PDF

Power-sharing ed sh pu T re R i bl E Overview be C Chapter I With this chapter, we resume the tour of democracy that we started last year. We note...

Power-sharing ed sh pu T re R i bl E Overview be C Chapter I With this chapter, we resume the tour of democracy that we started last year. We noted last year that in a democracy all power does not o N rest with any one organ of the government. An intelligent sharing of power among legislature, executive and judiciary is very important to the design of a democracy. In this and the next two chapters, we © carry this idea of power-sharing forward. We start with two stories from Belgium and Sri Lanka. Both these stories are about how democracies handle demands for power-sharing.The stories yield some general conclusions about the need for power-sharing in democracy. This allows us to discuss various forms of power-sharing that will be taken up in the following two chapters. tt Power sharing no 1  Belgium and Sri Lanka Belgium is a small country in Europe, and education much later. This led to smaller in area than the state of tensions between the Dutch-speaking Haryana. It has borders with France, and French-speaking communities the Netherlands, Germany and during the 1950s and 1960s. The Luxembourg. It has a population of a tension between the two communities little over one crore, about half the was more acute in Brussels. Brussels ed population of Haryana. The ETHNIC presented a special problem: the I have a simple composition of this small country is Dutch-speaking people constituted a equation in mind. Sharing power = very complex. Of the country’s total majority in the country, but a population, 59 per cent lives in the minority in the capital. h dividing power = Flemish region and speaks Dutch Let us compare this to the pu T weakening the language. Another 40 per cent people is country. Why do we situation in another country. Sri start by talking of live in the Wallonia region and speak Lanka is an island nation, just a few this? re R French. Remaining one per cent of the kilometres off the southern coast of bl Belgians speak German. In the capital Tamil Nadu. It has about two crore city Brussels, 80 per cent people speak people, about the same as in Haryana. E French while 20 per cent are Dutch- Like other nations in the South Asia speaking. region, Sri Lanka has a diverse be C The minority French-speaking population. The major social groups community was relatively rich and are the Sinhala-speakers (74 per cent) powerful. This was resented by the and the Tamil-speakers (18 per cent). o N Dutch-speaking community who got Among Tamils there are two sub- the benefit of economic development groups. Tamil natives of the country Communities © and regions of Belgium © Wikipedia Ethnic: A social Democratic Politics tt division based on shared culture. People belonging to the same ethnic group believe in no Brussels-Capital Region their common descent Walloon (French-speaking) because of similarities of physical type or of Flemish (Dutch-speaking) culture or both. They need not always have German-speaking Look at the maps of Belgium and Sri Lanka. In which the same religion or region, do you find concentration of different nationality. communities? 2 are called ‘Sri Lankan Tamils’ (13 per cent). Dutch community could take The rest, whose forefathers came from advantage of its numeric majority and India as plantation workers during force its will on the French and colonial period, are called ‘Indian Tamils’. German-speaking population. This As you can see from the map, Sri Lankan would push the conflict among Tamils are concentrated in the north and communities further. This could lead ed east of the country. Most of the Sinhala- to a very messy partition of the speaking people are Buddhists, while country; both the sides would claim most of the Tamils are Hindus or control over Brussels. In Sri Lanka, the Muslims. There are about 7 per cent Sinhala community enjoyed an even h Christians, who are both Tamil bigger majority and could impose its pu T and Sinhala. will on the entire country. Now, let us is Just imagine what could happen look at what happened in both these re R in situations like this. In Belgium, the countries. bl E Majoritarianism in Sri Lanka Sri Lanka emerged as an independent government policies denied them equal be C country in 1948. The leaders of the political rights, discriminated against Sinhala community sought to secure them in getting jobs and other dominance over government by virtue opportunities and ignored their o N of their majority. As a result, the interests. As a result, the relations democratically elected government adopted a series of MAJORITARIAN Ethnic Communities measures to establish Sinhala supremacy. of Sri Lanka © In 1956, an Act was passed to Sinhalese Sri Lankan Tamil recognise Sinhala as the only official Indian Tamil Muslim language, thus disregarding Tamil. The governments followed preferential policies that favoured Sinhala applicants for university positions and government jobs. A new constitution stipulated that the state shall protect tt and foster Buddhism. All these government measures, Power sharing no coming one after the other, gradually Majoritarianism: A increased the feeling of alienation belief that the majority among the Sri Lankan Tamils. They felt community should be able to rule a country in that none of the major political parties whichever way it wants, led by the Buddhist Sinhala leaders was by disregarding the sensitive to their language and culture. wishes and needs of the They felt that the constitution and minority. 3  between the Sinhala and Tamil The distrust between the two What’s wrong if communities strained over time. communities turned into widespread the majority community The Sri Lankan Tamils launched conflict. It soon turned into a CIVIL WAR. rules? If Sinhalas parties and struggles for the recognition As a result thousands of people of both don’t rule in Sri of Tamil as an official language, for the communities have been killed. Many Lanka, where regional autonomy and equality of families were forced to leave the country else will they opportunity in securing education and as refugees and many more lost their rule? jobs. But their demand for more livelihoods. You have read (Chapter 1 ed autonomy to provinces populated by of Economics textbook, Class X) about the Tamils was repeatedly denied. By Sri Lanka’s excellent record of economic 1980s several political organisations development, education and health. But were formed demanding an the civil war has caused a terrible setback h independent Tamil Eelam (state) in to the social, cultural and economic life pu T northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka. of the country. is re R Accommodation in Belgium bl The Belgian leaders took a different single community can make decisions E path. They recognised the existence of unilaterally. regional differences and cultural  Many powers of the central be C diversities. Between 1970 and 1993, government have been given to state they amended their constitution four governments of the two regions of the times so as to work out an arrangement country. The state governments are not o N that would enable everyone to live subordinate to the Central Government. together within the same country. The  Brussels has a separate government arrangement they worked out is in which both the communities have different from any other country and equal representation. The French- © is very innovative. Here are some of speaking people accepted equal the elements of the Belgian model: representation in Brussels because the Civil war: A violent conflict between  Constitution prescribes that the Dutch-speaking community has opposing groups within number of Dutch and French-speaking accepted equal representation in the a country that becomes ministers shall be equal in the central Central Government. so intense that it appears like a war. government. Some special laws require the support of majority of members from each linguistic group. Thus, no Democratic Politics tt no © Wikipedia What kind of a solution is this? I am glad our Constitution does not say The photograph here is of a street which minister will come from address in Belgium. You will notice that which community. place names and directions in two languages – French and Dutch. 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 ed power regarding cultural, educational and language-related issues. You might find the Belgian model very complicated. It indeed is very h complicated, even for people living in pu T Belgium. But these arrangements have is worked well so far. They helped to re R avoid civic strife between the two major communities and a possible European Union Parliament in Belgium bl division of the country on linguistic E lines. When many countries of Europe Union, Brussels was chosen as its came together to form the European headquarters. So you are saying that be C sharing of power makes us more o N powerful. Sounds odd! Let me think. Read any newspaper for one week and make clippings of news related to ongoing conflicts or wars. A group of five © students could pool their clippings together and do the following:  Classify these conflicts by their location (your state, India, outside India).  Find out the cause of each of these conflicts. How many of these are related to power sharing disputes?  Which of these conflicts could be resolved by working out power sharing arrangements? tt What do we learn from these two stories regions. Such a realisation resulted in of Belgium and Sri Lanka? Both are mutually acceptable arrangements for Power sharing no democracies. Yet, they dealt with the sharing power. Sri Lanka shows us a question of power sharing differently. contrasting example. It shows us that In Belgium, the leaders have realised if a majority community wants to force that the unity of the country is possible its dominance over others and refuses only by respecting the feelings and to share power, it can undermine the interests of different communities and unity of the country. 5  The cartoon at the left refers to the problems of running the Germany’s grand coalition government that includes the two major parties of the country, namely the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party. The two parties are historically rivals to each other. They © Tab - The Calgary Sun, Cagle Cartoons Inc. had to form a coalition government because neither of them got clear majority of seats on their own in the 2005 elections. They take divergent positions ed on several policy matters, but still jointly run the government. Tyranny of the majority is not just oppressive for the minority; it often h brings ruin to the majority as well. pu T There is a second, deeper reason is why power sharing is good for re R democracies. Power sharing is the very spirit of democracy. A democratic rule bl Why power sharing is desirable? involves sharing power with those E Thus, two different sets of reasons can affected by its exercise, and who have be given in favour of power sharing. to live with its effects. People have a right to be consulted on how they are be C Firstly, power sharing is good because it helps to reduce the possibility of to be governed. A legitimate conflict between social groups. Since government is one where citizens, o N social conflict often leads to violence through participation, acquire a stake and political instability, power sharing in the system. is a good way to ensure the stability of Let us call the first set of reasons political order. Imposing the will of PRUDENTIAL and the second moral. While © majority community over others may prudential reasons stress that power look like an attractive option in the sharing will bring out better outcomes, short run, but in the long run it moral reasons emphasise the very act undermines the unity of the nation. of power sharing as valuable. Democratic Politics tt Annette studies in a Dutch medium school in the northern region of Belgium. Many French-speaking students in Prudential: Based on her school want the medium of instruction to be French. Selvi no prudence, or on careful studies in a school in the northern region of Sri Lanka. All the calculation of gains and students in her school are Tamil-speaking and they want the losses. Prudential decisions medium of instruction to be Tamil. are usually contrasted with decisions based purely on If the parents of Annette and Selvi were to approach moral considerations. respective governments to realise the desire of the child who is more likely to succeed? And why? 6 Khalil’s As usual, Vikram was driving the motorbike under a vow of silence and Vetal was the pillion rider. As usual, Vetal dilemma started telling Vikram a story to keep him awake while driving. This time the story went as follows: “In the city of Beirut there lived a man called Khalil. His parents came from different communities. His father was an Orthodox Christian and mother a Sunni Muslim. This was not so uncommon in this modern, cosmopolitan city. People from ed various communities that lived in Lebanon came to live in its capital, Beirut. They lived together, intermingled, yet fought a bitter civil war among themselves. One of Khalil’s uncles was killed in that war. At the end of this civil war, Lebanon’s leaders came together and agreed to some basic h rules for power sharing among different communities. As per these rules, the country’s pu T President must belong to the Maronite sect of Catholic Christians. The Prime Minister must is be from the Sunni Muslim community. The post of Deputy Prime Minister is fixed for Orthodox Christian sect and that of the Speaker for Shi’a Muslims. Under this pact, the re R Christians agreed not to seek French protection and the Muslims agreed not to seek bl unification with the neighbouring state of Syria.When the Christians and Muslims came to E this agreement, they were nearly equal in population. Both sides have continued to respect this agreement though now the Muslims are in clear majority. be C Khalil does not like this system one bit. He is a popular man with political ambition. But under the present system the top position is out of his reach. He does not practise either his father’s or his mother’s religion and does not wish to be known by either. He o N cannot understand why Lebanon can’t be like any other ‘normal’ democracy. “Just hold an election, allow everyone to contest and whoever wins maximum votes becomes the president, no matter which community he comes from. Why can’t we do that, like in other democracies of the world?” he asks. His elders, who have seen the bloodshed of © the civil war, tell him that the present system is the best guarantee for peace…” The story was not finished, but they had reached the TV tower where they stopped every day. Vetal wrapped up quickly and posed his customary question to Vikram: “If you had the power to rewrite the rules in Lebanon, what would you do? Would you adopt the ‘regular’ rules followed tt everywhere, as Khalil suggests? Or stick to the old rules? Or do something else?” Vetal did not forget to remind Vikram of their basic Power sharing no pact: “If you have an answer in mind and yet do not speak up, your mobike will freeze, and so will you!” Can you help poor Vikram in answering Vetal? 7  Forms of power-sharing The idea of power-sharing has power should be distributed among as emerged in opposition to the notions many citizens as possible. of undivided political power. For a In modern democracies, power long time it was believed that all power sharing arrangements can take many of a government must reside in one forms. Let us look at some of the most person or group of persons located ed common arrangements that we have at one place. It was felt that if the or will come across. power to decide is dispersed, it would 1 Power is shared among different not be possible to take quick decisions organs of government, such as the and to enforce them. But these h legislature, executive and judiciary. Let notions have changed with the pu T us call this horizontal distribution of emergence of democracy. One basic is power because it allows different organs principle of democracy is that people of government placed at the same level re R are the source of all political power. to exercise different powers. Such a bl In a democracy, people rule separation ensures that none of the themselves through institutions of E organs can exercise unlimited power. self-government. In a good democratic Each organ checks the others. This government, due respect is given to results in a balance of power among be C diverse groups and views that exist in various institutions. Last year, we studied a society. Everyone has a voice in the that in a democracy, even though shaping of public policies. Therefore, o N ministers and government officials it follows that in a democracy political exercise power, they are responsible to Reigning the Reins the Parliament or State Assemblies. Similarly, although judges are appointed © Olle Johansson - Sweden, Cagle Cartoons Inc., 25 Feb. 2005 © by the executive, they can check the functioning of executive or laws made by the legislatures. 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 Democratic Politics tt provincial or regional level. Such a general government for the entire country is usually called federal no government. In India, we refer to it as the Central or Union Government. The governments at the provincial or In 2005, some new laws were made in Russia giving more powers to its president. During the same time the US president visited Russia. regional level are called by different What, according to this cartoon, is the relationship between democracy names in different countries. In India, and concentration of power? Can you think of some other examples to illustrate the point being made here? 8 we call them State Governments. This would feel alienated from the system is not followed in all countries. government. This method is used to There are many countries where there give minority communities a fair share are no provincial or state in power. In Unit II, we shall look at governments. But in those countries various ways of accommodating social like ours, where there are different diversities. levels of g overnment, the 4 Power sharing arrangements can constitution clearly lays down the also be seen in the way political ed powers of different levels of parties, pressure groups and government. This is what they did in movements control or influence those Belgium, but was refused in Sri Lanka. in power. In a democracy, the citizens This is called federal division of must have freedom to choose among h power. The same principle can be various contenders for power. In pu T extended to levels of government contemporary democracies, this takes is lower than the State government, such the form of competition among re R as the municipality and panchayat. Let us call division of powers involving different parties. Such competition ensures that power does not remain in bl higher and lower levels of one hand. In the long run, power is E government vertical division of shared among different political parties power. We shall study these at some that represent different ideologies and length in the next chapter. be C social groups. Sometimes this kind of 3 Power may also be shared among sharing can be direct, when two or different social groups such as the more parties form an alliance to o N religious and linguistic groups. contest elections. If their alliance is ‘Community government’ in Belgium elected, they for m a coalition is a good example of this arrangement. government and thus share power. In In some countries there are a democracy, we find interest groups © constitutional and legal arrangements such as those of traders, businessmen, whereby socially weaker sections and industrialists, farmers and industrial women are represented in the workers. They also will have a share in legislatures and administration. Last governmental power, either through In my school, the year, we studied the system of ‘reserved participation in governmental class monitor constituencies’ in assemblies and the committees or bringing influence on changes every month. Is that parliament of our country. This type the decision-making process. In Unit what you call a of arrangement is meant to give space III, we shall study the working of power sharing tt in the government and administration political parties, pressure groups and arrangement? to diverse social groups who otherwise social movements. Power sharing no 9  Here are some examples of power sharing. Which of the four types of power sharing do these represent? Who is sharing power with whom?  The Bombay High Court ordered the Maharashtra state government to immediately ed take action and improve living conditions for the 2,000-odd children at seven children’s homes in Mumbai.  The government of Ontario state in Canada has agreed to a land claim settlement with the aboriginal community. The Minister responsible for Native Affairs announced that h the government will work with aboriginal people in a spirit of mutual respect and cooperation. pu T  is Russia’s two influential political parties, the Union of Right Forces and the Liberal Yabloko Movement, agreed to unite their organisations into a strong right-wing re R coalition. They propose to have a common list of candidates in the next bl parliamentary elections.  The finance ministers of various states in Nigeria got together and demanded that E the federal government declare its sources of income. They also wanted to know the formula by which the revenue is distributed to various state governments. be C Exercises N 1. What are the different forms of power sharing in modern to © democracies? Give an example of each of these. 2. State one prudential reason and one moral reason for power sharing with an example from the Indian context. 3. After reading this chapter, three students drew different conclusions. Which of these do you agree with and why? Give your reasons in about 50 words. Thomman - Power sharing is necessary only in societies which have religious, linguistic or ethnic divisions. Mathayi – Power sharing is suitable only for big countries that Democratic Politics have regional divisions. Ouseph – Every society needs some form of power sharing t even if it is small or does not have social divisions. no 4. The Mayor of Merchtem, a town near Brussels in Belgium, has defended a ban on speaking French in the town’s schools. He said that the ban would help all non-Dutch speakers integrate in this Flemish town. Do you think that this measure is in keeping with the spirit of Belgium’s power sharing arrangements? Give your reasons in about 50 words. 10 5. Read the following passage and pick out any one of the prudential reasons for power sharing offered in this. “We need to give more power to the panchayats to realise the dream of Mahatma Gandhi and the hopes of the makers of our Constitution. Panchayati Raj establishes true democracy. It restores power to the only place where power belongs in a democracy – in the hands of the people. Giving power to Panchayats is also a way to reduce corruption and Exercises ed increase administrative efficiency. When people participate in the planning and implementation of developmental schemes, they would naturally exercise greater control over these schemes. This would eliminate the corrupt middlemen. Thus, Panchayati Raj will strengthen the foundations of our h democracy.” pu T 6. Different arguments are usually put forth in favour of and against is power sharing. Identify those which are in favour of power sharing re R and select the answer using the codes given below? Power sharing: bl A. reduces conflict among different communities B. decreases the possibility of arbitrariness E C. delays decision making process D. accommodates diversities be C E. increases instability and divisiveness F. promotes people’s participation in government G. undermines the unity of a country o N (a) A B D F (b) A C E F (c) A B D G (d) B C D G © 7. Consider the following statements about power sharing arrangements in Belgium and Sri Lanka. A. In Belgium, the Dutch-speaking majority people tried to impose their domination on the minority French-speaking community. B. In Sri Lanka, the policies of the government sought to ensure the dominance of the Sinhala-speaking majority. C. The Tamils in Sri Lanka demanded a federal arrangement of power sharing to protect their culture, language and equality of tt opportunity in education and jobs. D. The transformation of Belgium from unitary government to a federal one prevented a possible division of the country on Power sharing no linguistic lines. Which of the statements given above are correct? (a) A, B, C and D (b) A, B and D (c) C and D (d) B, C and D 11  8. Match List I (forms of power sharing) with List II (forms of government) and select the correct answer using the codes given below in the lists: List I List II 1. Power shared among different organs of government A. Community government d 2. Power shared among governments at different levels B. Separation of powers he 3. Power shared by different social groups C. Coalition government Exercises 4. Power shared by two or more pu T is political parties D. Federal government re R 1 2 3 4 bl (a) D A B C (b) B C D A E (c) B D A C (d) C D A B be C 9. Consider the following two statements on power sharing and select the answer using the codes given below: N A. Power sharing is good for democracy. B. It helps to reduce the possibility of conflict between social groups. Which of these statements are true and false? tt © (a) A is true but B is false (b) Both A and B are true (c) Both A and B are false (d) A is false but B is true o Democratic Politics no 12