Question

How do social divisions affect politics? Give two examples.

Answer 1

Hint: Democracy, in general, revolves around the concept of political parties and the competition that emerges out of it. This competition may not always be healthy.

Complete Step by Step answer:
The key features of democracy include political competition, active participation of people in choosing their representatives and a rule of law which should be the same for all its citizens. The main element of democracy is who gets elected and forms the government. This leads to competition among various political parties. This, in turn, leads to competition within the citizens based on the ideologies they believe in. therefore, people now are divided into social groups that might have stark opposing views. The politics is played in a manner that it furthers this gap and creates chaos which leads to riots, communal conflicts, mob lynching etc.

For example, in North Ireland, the country was divided into Catholics (represented by Nationalists) and protestants (represented by Unionists). This conflict between the nationalists and unionists ended up in a civil war where a lot of people died.
Another example would be Yugoslavia. This country was divided into six different independent countries just because of the political competition on ethnic and religious lines.

Note: Social division stems from the extreme devotion to one’s own social group. The membership to a particular group often results in advantages, disadvantages and more often than not, inequalities.