Power Sharing — Questions & Answers

Sample questions from Power Sharing

1. Q1. How do political parties, pressure groups and movements contribute to power sharing?

   • A.By preventing people from voting
   • B.By providing ways in which power is shared among different political parties that represent different ideologies and social groups, and through their competition and cooperation✓
   • C.By concentrating all power in one party
   • D.By ending all competition
   Solution

   In a democracy, power is also shared among different political parties, pressure groups and movements; parties represent different ideologies and social groups and compete in elections, and this competition ensures that power does not remain in one hand, while interest groups and movements too gain a share of governmental power through influence and coalition.

2. Q2. The way Belgium accommodated its regional and cultural diversities is best described as:

   • A.Majoritarianism
   • B.A model of a carefully worked out arrangement to share power among different communities✓
   • C.Refusal to share power
   • D.Rule by one community
   Solution

   The Belgian leaders recognised the existence of regional and cultural differences and, between 1970 and 1993, amended their constitution four times to work out an arrangement that would enable everyone to live together within the same country, sharing power among the communities.

3. Q3. How did the Sinhala-only language policy and related measures make Sri Lankan Tamils feel, according to the chapter?

   • A.Reassured, since Tamil was still used in courts
   • B.Discriminated against and increasingly alienated from the government✓
   • C.Indifferent, since the policy did not affect daily life
   • D.Grateful for continued minority protections
   Solution

   B is correct, matching the chapter's account. A, C and D each contradict the chapter's description of growing Tamil resentment and alienation.

4. Q4. Besides the language policy, which additional step by the Sri Lankan government favoured the Sinhala community, as per the chapter?

   • A.Reserving parliamentary seats for Sinhala areas only
   • B.Banning Tamil-language newspapers
   • C.Giving preference to Sinhalese applicants for university admission and government jobs✓
   • D.Making Tamil a compulsory subject in all schools
   Solution

   C is correct and specifically stated in the chapter. A, B and D are plausible-sounding discriminatory measures a student might guess at, but none of them is the fact the textbook actually names.

5. Q5. The Belgian model of power sharing became especially important because:

   • A.Brussels was chosen as the headquarters of the European Union✓
   • B.Belgium had no diversity
   • C.Belgium refused to share power
   • D.Belgium had only one community
   Solution

   The Belgian model, though it may look very complicated even to the people of Belgium, worked well and helped to avoid civic strife and a possible division of the country on linguistic lines; when Brussels was chosen as the headquarters of the European Union, the Belgian arrangement became even more significant as a model of accommodation.

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