Power-sharing — Notes

Belgium is a small country in western Europe (smaller in area than Haryana; a little over one crore people), bordering the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France.

Composition: about 59% Dutch-speaking (Flemish region), 40% French-speaking (Wallonia), 1% German-speaking. In Brussels, about 80% speak French and 20% Dutch.

Tension: the French-speaking minority was relatively rich and powerful; the Dutch-speakers gained from economic development and education later and resented this. Tensions rose in the 1950s and 1960s, most sharply in Brussels, where the national majority was a local minority.

The Belgian model (constitution amended four times between 1970 and 1993):

1. Equal numbers of Dutch- and French-speaking ministers in the central government; some special laws require the support of a majority of each linguistic group, so no single community can decide alone.
2. Many central powers given to the state governments of the two regions, which are not subordinate to the central government.
3. Brussels has a separate government with equal representation of both communities (the French-speakers accepted this because the Dutch-speakers had accepted equality at the centre).
4. A third kind of government, the community government, is elected by people of one language community (Dutch, French or German) wherever they live, with powers over cultural, educational and language-related issues.

Result: civic strife and a possible division of the country were avoided; Brussels became the headquarters of the European Union.

Sri Lanka is an island nation a few kilometres off the southern coast of Tamil Nadu, with about two crore people; independent in 1948.

Composition: Sinhala-speakers about 74% (mostly Buddhists); Tamil-speakers about 18%: Sri Lankan Tamils about 13% (concentrated in the north and east) and Indian Tamils about 5% (descendants of plantation workers brought in the colonial period). Most Tamils are Hindus or Muslims; about 7% of the people are Christians, both Tamil and Sinhala.

Majoritarian measures:

• An Act of 1956 recognised Sinhala as the only official language, disregarding Tamil.
• Preferential policies favoured Sinhala applicants for university positions and government jobs.
• The constitution provided that the state shall protect and foster Buddhism.

Effects: Sri Lankan Tamils felt that the main parties, led by Sinhala leaders, paid little attention to their language and culture, and that the constitution and government policies left them without equal political rights. They struggled for recognition of Tamil as an official language, regional autonomy and equal opportunity in education and jobs; these demands were repeatedly denied. By the 1980s some organisations demanded an independent Tamil Eelam in the north and east. Mistrust grew into open conflict and then a civil war; thousands of people of both communities were killed and many families became refugees. The civil war ended in 2009.

Majoritarianism is the belief that the majority community may run the country as it likes, setting aside what minorities want or need.

Both countries had a clear majority community. Belgium recognised regional differences and cultural diversity and shared power; it stayed united. Sri Lanka let the majority force its dominance and refused to share power; this undermined the unity of the country.

The difference was not the size of the majority but the choice made by its leaders.

Prudential reasons (weighing costs and benefits):

• Power-sharing reduces the possibility of conflict between social groups.
• Social conflict often leads to violence and political instability; sharing power is a good way to ensure the stability of the political order.
• Letting the majority dominate may seem the easy path at first, but over time it weakens national unity; a tyranny of the majority crushes minorities and can end up harming the majority too.

Moral reasons (power-sharing is valuable in itself):

• It is the very spirit of democracy.
• Citizens are entitled to a say in how they are governed.
• A government is legitimate when citizens take part in it and feel it belongs to them.

Prudential reasons stress that power-sharing brings better outcomes; moral reasons stress the act of sharing itself.

1. Horizontal distribution: power shared among the legislature, executive and judiciary, placed at the same level; each checks the others (checks and balances). In India, ministers exercise power but must answer to Parliament; and although the executive appoints judges, the courts can review the executive's actions and the legislature's laws.
2. Vertical division: power shared among governments at different levels: a general government for the whole country (union or central government in India) and governments at the provincial or regional level (state governments in India) — a federal division of power; extended further to local governments (panchayats, municipalities).
3. Among social groups: religious and linguistic groups, socially weaker sections and women; e.g. community government in Belgium, reserved constituencies in India.
4. Among political parties, pressure groups and movements: competition among parties keeps power from staying in one hand; parties share power directly in coalition governments; interest groups (traders, businessmen, industrialists, farmers, industrial workers) share power by joining government committees or influencing decisions.