Belgium
● Belgium is a small federal state in Western Europe
having complex ethnic composition.
● The minority French speaking community (40%) was
relatively rich and powerful while the Dutch-speaking
community (59%) got the benefit of development
and education much later.
● The capital of Belgium is Brussels, where 80%
people speak French, while 20% speak Dutch
language.
● The social disparity led to tensions between Dutch
and French speaking communities during the 1950s
and 1960s.
Accommodation in Belgium
● Between 1970s and 1993, the Constitution of
Belgium was amended four times.
● The Constitution suggests that the number of Dutch
and French speaking ministers shall be equal in the
Central Government of Belgium.
● The State Governments are not subordinate to the
Central Government.
● Brussels has a separate government, in which both
the Dutch and French-speaking people have equal
representation.
● Apart from the State and Central Government, there is
a third kind of government; community government in Belgium which has the power regarding cultural,
educational and language related issues..
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is an island nation in the Indian Ocean. It
has a diverse population of about 2 crore people with
74% Sinhala Speakers and 18% Tamil Speakers.
Tamils have two subgroups namely
● Sri Lankan Tamils Tamil natives of Sri Lanka are
called Sri Lankan Tamils who constitute 13% of the
population and are concentrated in the North and
East of Sri Lanka.
● Most of Sinhala Speaking people are Buddhist,
while most of the Tamils are Hindus or Muslims.
● Indian Tamils The Tamilians whose forefathers
came from India as plantation workers during
colonial rule and settled in Sri Lanka are called
Indian Tamils. They constitute 5% of the population.
Majoritarianism in Sri Lanka
● The Sinhala community of Sri Lanka dominated the
minority Tamil people and practised majoritarian policy.
● In 1956, an Act was passed to recognise Sinhala as the
only official language.
● The government followed preferential policies that
favoured Sinhala applicants for university positions and
government jobs.
● The state protect and promote Buddhism.
● All these measures increased gradually the feeling of
alienation among Sri Lankan Tamils.
● The Sri Lankan Tamils demanded regional autonomy
and equality of opportunity in securing education and
jobs and also to recognise Tamil as an official language.
● But their demand was repeatedly denied. By the 1980s
they organised many political organisation like LTTE
(Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) and the conflict turned
into a Civil War.
Why Power Sharing is Desirable?
● Power sharing is a good way to ensure the stability of
the political order. It reduces the possibility of conflict
between social groups. This is termed as Prudential
reason.
● Power sharing is the spirit of democracy, people have a
right to be consulted on how they are to be governed.
This is termed as Moral reason.
Forms of Power Sharing
● In modern democracy, power sharing arrangements can
take many forms like horizontal distribution of power and
vertical distribution of power.
● Horizontal distribution of power ensures that none of
the organs, i.e. legislature, executive and judiciary can
exercise unlimited power.
● In vertical division of power there are different levels of
government and the powers are divided among them. It
is also known as federal division of power. It is found
both in India and Belgium but not in Sri Lanka.
● In Belgium, leaders took a different path of power
sharing. After amending their Constitution, they
developed the concept of community government apart
from State and Central Government.
● Power is shared among different organs of government,
among governments at different levels, among different
social groups and can also be seen in the way political
parties, pressure groups and movements control or influence those in power.
