MAJORITARIANISM
AND
POLICY OF
ACCOMODATION
SRI LANKA & BELGIUM
PPT BY RUTAJIT V 10th ORCHID
This PPT gives an overview of Power Sharing in Sri Lanka
and Belgium.
Sri Lanka following Rule of Majoritarianism and Belgium
following Policy of Accommodation.
In the subsequent slides, definition of Majoritarianism and
Policy of Accommodation, Ethnic Topography of both the
nations Comparison of Power Sharing Arrangements of Sri
Lanka and Belgium and its Consequences are described.
Majoritarianism
 It is the idea that the numerical majority of a
population should have the final say in determining the
outcome of a decision.
 Majoritarianism is a traditional political philosophy or
agenda that asserts that a majority (sometimes
categorized by religion, language, social class, or some
other identifying factor) of the population is entitled to a
certain degree of primacy in society, and has the right
to make decisions that affect the society.
 It is a belief that the majority community should be able
to rule a country in whichever way it wants by
disregarding the wishes and needs of the minority.
Policy of accommodation
 It is a process of bringing about reconciliation of
diverse conflicting interests through negotiations
and compromises.
 It refers to the system where the power is
shared between the majority and the minority of
the society.
 It ensures adequate power sharing among
different groups.
 It results in good harmony and peace between
the majority and the minority.
Ethnic Communities in Sri Lanka and Belgium
It is an island nation.
It is a few kilometres off the
Southern Coast of Tamil Nadu.
The population is around 2
crores.
It is about the same size of
Haryana.
It has diverse population
 It is a small country in
Europe.
 It is smaller in area than
the state of Haryana.
 It borders with
Netherlands, Germany,
France and Luxembourg.
 The population is little over
1 crore.
 It has a complex government
structure.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
i. It emerged as an independent country in
the year 1948.
ii. Leaders of Sinhala community sought to
secure dominance by virtue of their
majority.
iii. As a result the democratically elected
government adopted a series of
majoritarianism measures to establish
Sinhala supremacy.
iv. Sri Lanka has a diverse population.
v. Sinhalese form 74% and the Tamil speakers
18% of population.
vi. Among Tamils there are two sub-groupsSri Lankan Tamils (11%) and Indian Tamils
(7%).
vii. Sinhalese people are Buddhists while most
of the Tamils are Hindus or Muslims.
viii. There are around 7% of Sr Lankan Moors
and 1% of other population.
Belgium
Belgium
i. Belgium is a small country in Europe.
ii. It has borders with France, Netherlands,
Germany and Luxembourg.
iii. The composition of this country is very
complex.
iv. 59% speak Dutch language, 40% percent
speak French, while the remaining 1%
speak German.
v. In the capital city Brussels, 80% speak
French while 20% speak Dutch.
vi. Minority French speaking were relatively
rich and powerful.
vii. This was opposed by Dutch speaking,
though they were in majority. This resulted
in tension among them.
viii. The Belgium leaders took a different path
and recognized existence of regional
differences and cultural diversities and
amended the constitution to to enable
everyone to live in peace and together.
Comparison of Power Sharing Arrangements of Sri
Lanka and Belgium and its Consequences
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
viii.
Belgium
They adopted a policy of power sharing.
They gave equal powers to all communities.
minor or major doesn't matter.
The constitution prescribed that the number
of Dutch and French speaking minister shall be
equal in the Central Government.
Thus, no single community can make decisions
unilaterally.
Many powers of the central government have
been given to the state governments of the
two regions of the country.
The state government aren’t subordinate to
the central government.
Apart from central and state government
there is a third government called community
government and is elected by people belonging
to one language community.
This helped to avoid civic strife and
maintained harmony.
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
viii.
Sri Lanka
They adopted a policy of Majoritarianism.
They gave preferences to the majority Sinhala
group alone, disregarding the minority.
In the year 1956, an act was passed to
recognize Sinhala as the official language
disregarding Tamil.
The government followed preferential policies
that favored Sinhalas for jobs and
establishing universities.
The new constitution stipulated that state
shall foster and protect Buddhism.
All these measures gradually increased the
feeling of hostility.
Sr Lankan Tamils felt the government has
denied them equal political rights,
discriminated against them in getting jobs and
ignored their interests.
As a result Sri Lankan Tamils demanded
independent state and this led to a civil war.
THE
END
THANK
YOU