Why is democracy considered better suited than authoritarian regimes to manage social differences and conflicts? Explain the conditions democracy must fulfil to prevent these differences from turning into deep social divisions.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-26 13:21 · grounding rag
Model Answer
Democracy is better suited than authoritarian regimes to manage social differences because it develops procedures to conduct competition among groups, reducing the possibility of tensions becoming explosive or violent. Non-democratic regimes often suppress or ignore internal social differences, whereas democracy evolves mechanisms to negotiate and respect them.
Conditions democracy must fulfil:
- Majority must work with minority — Democracy is not simply rule by majority opinion. The majority must work with the minority so that governments represent the general view.
- Majority rule must not become majority community rule — Rule by majority should not mean domination by a religious, racial, or linguistic group. Every citizen must have a chance of being in the majority at some point; if someone is barred from this on the basis of birth, democracy ceases to be accommodative.
Source: Accommodation of social diversity, Chapter 5
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Explanation
- The examiner expects two clearly stated conditions — these are directly from the textbook and must not be merged or paraphrased loosely.
- Mention why democracy is better (develops negotiating procedures; non-democracies suppress differences) before listing conditions.
- The Sri Lanka example is the textbook's own warning — you can briefly reference it to show why the conditions matter.
- 3 marks = ~1 mark for why democracy is better + 1 mark each for the two conditions. Label or bullet them for clarity.