Exercise 1

Proportionality is an important practice in power-sharing which includes the proportional allocation of jobs, representation and participation by ethnic group leaders.

Which of the following is an example of proportionality?

There are two statements given below, marked as Assertion (A) and Reason (R). Read the statement and choose the correct option.

(A): Power sharing can only emerge in a democratic setup.

(R): In an ideal democracy, political power is distributed among as many people as possible.  

Read the following lines from an article written by a group of authors:

"Rise of Majoritarianism in recent years may weaken power-sharing in Indian Democracy. There is a need of constitutional provisions to protect minority rights."

Which type of reasoning for power-sharing is visible here? 

State whether the following statement is True or False.

"Power sharing is effective only for small countries like Belgium"  Give an example to support your answer. 

One of the remedies that are suggested for societies struggling with civil conflict are power-sharing arrangements that accommodate the various parties involved in the civil conflict. Power-sharing guarantees each of the critical players, a significant payoff from cooperation and peaceful behaviour.

This peaceful behaviour can be maintained in the power-sharing arrangements in two ways:

(1) by providing minimum benefit to each party from cooperation in collective decisions, and

(2) through provisions that protect group autonomy in sensitive policy areas.

1) In Lebanon, The Prime Minister must be a Sunni Muslim and the Deputy Prime Minister must be an Orthodox Christian. Which of the two ways of maintaining peaceful behaviour given above is this an example of?

2) Give one example each for the two ways of maintaining peaceful behaviour in the context of power-sharing arrangement in Belgium.
 

(1) Bengaluru's Jalaposhan trust, a citizen collective, collaborates with the Municipal Corporation (BBMP) of Bengaluru to conserve and revive a lake in the city.
(2) In Maharashtra, every level of government was given a stake in taking action against the spread of coronavirus.

Read the statements given above and answer the following questions: 

(a) State the type of power-sharing arrangement that each of the two examples represent?

(b) In the above examples, who is sharing power with whom?

(c) In which kind of government are such power-sharing arrangements possible?

What are the needs for power sharing?

Which three demands of Sri Lanka Tamil if accepted and met, could have settled the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka for good? Explain.