aman negi social science holiday h.h.w

MADE BY RAZA,SHARJEEL & SOHAIB

POWER SHARING


INTRODUCTION

With this we will resume the tour of democracy. In a democracy all power does not rest with any one organ of the state. An intelligent sharing of power among legislature, executive and judiciary is very important to the design of a democracy. In this we will carry this idea of power sharing forward. We start with two stories from Belgium and Sri Lanka. Both these are about how democracies handle demands for power sharing. This 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.


BELGIUM AND SRI LANKABelgium is a small country in Europe,smaller in area than the state of Haryana. It has borders with Netherlands, France and Germany. It has a population of a little over one crore, about half the population of Haryana. The ETHNIC composition of this small country is very complex. Of the country’s total population, 59 percent lives in the Flemish region and speaks Dutch language. Another 40 percent people live in the Wallonia region and speak French. Remaining 1 percent of the Belgians speak German. In the capital city Brussels, 80 per cent people speak French while 20 per cent are Dutch-speaking. Sri Lanka is an island nation, just a few kilometers off the southern coast of Tamil Nadu. It has about 2 crore people, about the same as in Haryana. Like other nations in the South Asia region, Sri Lanka has a diverse population. The major social groups are the Sinhala-speakers (74 percent) and the Tamil-speakers (18 percent). Among Tamils there are two sub-groups. Tamil natives of the country are called “sri lankan tamils” The rest were indian tamils.


MAJORITARIANISMSri Lanka emerged as an independent country in 1948. The leaders of the Sinhala community sought to secure dominance over government by virtue of their majority. As a result, the democratically elected government adopted a series of MAJORITARIAN measures to establish Sinhala supremacy.(1)In 1956, an Act was passed to recognize Sinhala as the only official 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 and foster Buddhism.(2)All these government measures, coming one after the other, gradually increased the feeling of alienation among the Sri Lankan Tamils. They felt that none of the major political parties led by the Buddhist Sinhala leaders were sensitive to their language and culture. They felt that the constitutionand government policies denied them equal political rights, discriminated against them in getting jobs and other opportunities and ignored their interests.

FLAGBELGIUM SRI LANKA


ACCOMODATION IN BELGIUM Between 1970 and 1993, Belgium leaders amended their constitution four

times so as to work out an arrangement that would enable everyone to live together within the same country. The arrangement they worked out is different from any other country and is very innovative. Here are some of the elements of the Belgian model:EQUAL MINISTER FOR BOTH THE GROUPSConstitution prescribes that the number of Dutch and French-speaking ministers shall be equal in the central government. Some special laws require the support of majority of members from each linguistic group. Thus, no single community can make decisions unilaterally.MORE POWER TO STATE GOVERNMENTMany powers of the central government have been given to state governments of the two regions of the country. The state governments are not subordinate to the Central Government.EQUAL REPRESENTATION AT STATE & CENTRAL LEVEL Brussels has a separate government in which both the communities have equal representation. The French speaking people accepted equal representation in Brussels because the Dutch-speaking community has accepted equal representation in the Central Government


FORMATION OF COMMUNITY GOVERNMENTApart 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 power regarding cultural, educational and language-related issues


WHY POWER SHARING IS DESIRABLE

I. Firstly, power sharing is good because it helps to reduce the possibility of conflict between social groups. Since social conflict often leads to violence and political instability, power sharing is a good way to ensure the stability of political order. Imposing the will of majority community over others in the long run it undermines the unity of the nation.

II. deeper reason why power sharing is good for democracies. Power sharing is the very spirit of democracy. A democratic rule involves sharing power with those affected by its exercise, and who have to live with its effects. People have a right to be consulted on how they are to be governed. A legitimate government is one where citizens, through participation, acquire a stake in the system.


Horizontal OR Check and Balance System

Each of these organs is placed at the same level to exercise different powers

None of them has unlimited power thus maintains balance.

Each one of them keeps watch on the functioning of the other two.

Hence it is called Check and Balance System.

The Legislature The Executive The Judiciary

FORMS OF POWER SHARING


The Central Govt. is set up for the whole nation.The state/provincial govt. is set up for each

provinces/states.The central govt. transfers/shares some of the powers

to/with the state govt. (as in Belgium).In a big country like India, this type of two tier system is

not sufficient.So we have the third tier – the Local Self Govt.Both the Central and State govt. have transferred power

and resources to the Local bodies.


Central Govt.

State Govt.

Local Bodies

VERTICAL POWER SHARING

Socially weaker sections also have to have share in power.

Community govt. in Belgium is one example for this type of power sharing.

In India, it is done by way of reservation.Constituencies and seats are reserved for

women, SCs and STs.Thus power is shared among different social

groups.

Power Sharing among different social groups

SCsSTs

Women



POWER SHARING AMONG POLITICAL

PARTIES, PRESSURE GROUPS AND MOVEMENTS

No political party enjoys power for ever. It is for the people to decide who should be in power. With the emergence of coalition govt. many parties

share power at the same time. Pressure groups and movements have share in

power by exerting pressure on the govt. They exert pressure by various means and get

policies framed in their favour.

PRESENTED BY AMAN NEGIX - B

CLASS- X-B

THE END

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