Why is power-sharing among different social groups — such as religious or linguistic minorities — considered necessary in a democracy?
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-26 13:16 · grounding rag
Model Answer
Power-sharing among religious and linguistic minorities is necessary in a democracy because:
- It gives diverse social groups a fair share in government, preventing them from feeling alienated.
- It ensures rule by majority does not become permanent domination by one community based on religion or language, which would undermine democracy.
Every citizen must have a chance of being in the majority at some point; barring any group on the basis of birth makes democratic rule non-accommodative for that group.
Source: Democratic Politics II, Chapter 1 (Forms of Power-Sharing) and Chapter 5 (Accommodation of Social Diversity)
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Explanation
- Key examiner expectation: Two clear reasons are needed for 2 marks. State the "alienation" point (from Chapter 1) and the "majority vs. minority community" point (from Chapter 5).
- Avoid writing about horizontal/vertical power-sharing — those are different forms; the question is specifically about social groups.
- The word "alienated" from the textbook is a scoring keyword — use it.
- Keep it within ~50 words for the answer body; don't over-explain.