Democracy and Diversity

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• Summary

1. Political parties talk about divisions, make different promises to different communities look after due representation of various communities and make policies to redress the grievances of the disadvantaged communities.
2. Political parties raise their issues in a peaceful manner for seeking votes.

1. Political parties talk about divisions, make different promises to different communities look after due representation of various communities and make policies to redress the grievances of the disadvantaged communities.
2. Political parties raise their issues in a peaceful manner for seeking votes.

1.   (a)  Violent Conflict
             Example:  Reublic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

      (b) Reason: Ethno-religious with political fallout.
            Example: Republic predominantly Catholic. Northern Ireland 53% Protestant, 44% Catholics. The Republic wanted them to unite.

      (c) Parties: The Nationalists represented the Republic, the Unionists represented Northern Ireland and wanted to remain within U.K.
            Example: Violent war where hundreds were killed. Republic of Ireland fought with Northern Ireland as well as with U.K.

Final Outcome: A peace treaty signed in 1998 which ended the armed struggle.

2.   Yugoslavia also faced ethno-religious differences. They led to political competition. Civil war followed and Yugoslavia has been broken up now into seven independent nations, namely; Bosnia, Macedonia Croatia, Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro.

Conclusion:  Social divisions should not be allowed to influence the politics of a country. We have seen the result in our own country — Partition into India and Pakistan

In a democracy, how do social divisions affect the people?

1. Social divisions will be reflected in politics (Example: India).
2. Political parties will refer to these divisions.
3. Political parties would try to redress the grievances of minorities.
4. Voting is affected in most countries. People from one community prefer some parties more than the others.
5. In some countries, there are parties that focus on one community only.

Three determinants (factors) for the outcome of politics of social divisions:

1. How people perceive their identities- eg-to be an Indian though belonging to the different state.
2. How political leaders raise the demands of any community- eg- The demand for ‘only Sinhala’ in Srilanka brought distrust among Tamils.
3. How the govt. react to different groups- eg –Willing to share power and be accommodative like in Belgium.