Accommodating social diversity

Can democracy keep the peace between groups? It is fair to expect democracy to give people a harmonious social life. No society can end conflicts between groups fully and forever. But people can learn to respect differences and find ways to negotiate them. Democracy is the best system for this.

How democracy helps. Democracies set up rules for competition between groups (elections, debate, courts). That makes it less likely that tensions become violent. Belgium (Chapter 1) is the example: it settled its language quarrel peacefully. Non-democracies often ignore or crush social differences instead. Handling differences well is a clear plus point of democracy.

Condition 1: not just majority opinion. Sri Lanka reminds us that democracy must meet two conditions. First, democracy means more than whatever most people think. The majority must work with the minority, so the government reflects the general view. And majority and minority opinions are not permanent: today's minority can become tomorrow's majority.

Condition 2: not rule by a majority community. Majority rule must not become rule by a majority community of one religion, race or language. Majority rule means that on each decision or at each election, different people and groups can form the majority.

The test. A democracy remains one only while every citizen can, at some time, be part of the majority. If anyone is shut out of the majority because of their birth (their religion, caste, race or language), democracy stops accommodating them. That is what happened to the Tamils in Sri Lanka: they could never be part of the majority, because the Sinhala majority community used its numbers to dominate.