X Civics

UNIT -1 POWER SHARING

Thinks we gonna learn in this chapter:-

1. With this chapter, we resume the tour of democracy that we started last year.

2. An intelligent sharing of power among a legislature, executive, and judiciary is very important to the design of democracy.

3. We start with two stories from Belgium and Sri Lanka.

4. Both these stories are about how democracies handle demands for power-sharing.

Belgium and Sri Lanka:

1. Belgium is a small country in Europe.

2. It has borders with the Netherlands, France, and Germany.

3. 59% in the Flemish region speak Dutch.

4. Another 40% of people live in the Wallonia region and speak French.

5. Remaining 1% of the Belgians speak Germany.

6. In the capital city Brussels, 80% of people speak French while 20% are Dutch-speaking.

7. The minority French-speaking community was relatively rich and powerful.

8. This was resented by the Dutch-speaking community who got the benefit of the economic development and education much later.

9. The tension between the two communities was acuter in Brussels.

10. Like other nations in the south Asia region, Sri Lanka has a diverse population.

11. The Sinhala speaks are 74% and Tamil speakers are 18%

12. Among Tamils, there are two subgroups, Tamil natives of the country are called “Sri Lankan Tamils”; the rest whose forefathers came from India as population workers during the colonial period is called ‘Indian Tamils’.

Majoritarianism in Sri Lanka:

1. Sri Lankan emerged as an independent country in 1948.

2. The leaders of the Sinhala community sought to secure dominance over the government by virtue of their majority.

3. In 1956, an Act was passed to recognize Sinhala as the only official language, thus disregarding Tamil.

4. A new constitution stipulated that the state shall protect and foster Buddhism.

5. All these coming measures, coming one after the other, gradually increased the feeling of alienation among the Sri Lankan Tamils.

6. As a result, the relations between the Sinhala and Tamil communities strained over time.

7. The Sri Lankan Tamils launched parties and struggles.

8. But their demand for more autonomy to provinces populated by the Tamils was repeatedly denied.

9. The distrust between the two communities turned into widespread conflict. It soon turned into CIVIL WAR.

10. The civil war caused a terrible setback to the social, cultural, and economic life of the country.

Accommodation in Belgium:

1. Belgium recognized the existence of regional differences and cultural diversities.

2. Between 1970 and 1993, they amended their constitution four times so as to work out an arrangement that would enable everyone to live together within the same country.

3. Here are some of the elements of the Belgian model:
a. Constitution prescribes that the number of Dutch and French-speaking ministers shall be equal in the central government.
b. Many powers of the central government have been given to states government of the two of the regions of the country.
c. Brussels has a separated government in which both the communities have equal representation.
d. Apart from the central and state government, there is a third kind of government. This is community government.

4. In Belgium, the leaders have realized that the unity of the country is possible only by respecting the feelings and interests of different communities and regions.

5. Sri Lanka shows us a contrasting example. It shows us that if a majority community wants to force its dominance over others and refuses to share power, it can undermine the unity of the country.

Why is power sharing desirable?

1. Thus, two different sets of reasons can be given in favor of power-sharing.

2. Firstly, power-sharing is good because it helps to reduce the possibility of conflict between social groups.

3. There is a second, deeper reason why power sharing is good for democracy. Power-sharing is very spirit of democracy. A democratic rule involves sharing power with those affected by its exercise, and who have to live with its effects.

4. Let us call the first set of reasons PRUDENTIAL and the second moral.

5. While prudential reasons stress that power-sharing will bring out better outcomes, moral reasons emphasize the very act of power-sharing as valuable.

Forms of power-sharing:

1. The idea of power-sharing has emerged in opposition to the notions of undivided political power.

2. For a long time, it was believed that all power of a government must reside in one person or group of a person located in one place.

3. One basic principle of power-sharing is that people are the source of all political power.

4. In a good democratic government, due respect is given to diverse groups and views that exist in a society.

5. Everyone has a voice in the shaping of public politics.

6. Therefore, it follows that in a democracy political power should be distributed among as many citizens as possible.

Let us look at some of the most common arrangements that we have or will come across.

1. Power is shared among different organs of the government, such as the legislature, executive, and judiciary. Let us call this horizontal distribution of power because it allows different organs of the government placed at the same level to exercise different powers. E.g legislature, executive, and judiciary.

2. Power can be shared among governments at different levels – a general government for the entire country and governments at the provincial or regional level. The division of higher and lower levels of government is called the vertical division of power. e.g  Central Government, State Governments, Municipality, Gram Panchayat. 

3. Power may also be shared among different social groups, such as the religious and linguistic groups. ‘Community government’ is a good example of this arrangement.

4. Power-sharing arrangement can also be seen in the way political parties, pressure groups, and movements control or influence those in power.

@lEXTRA QUESTION

CIVICS

‘Belgium and Sri Lanka dealt with the question of power-sharing differently’. Explain.

What is Vertical division of power? Explain it with an example.

Which values are associated with a good democracy?                                               

Sharing of powers makes a country more powerful and united. Do you agree with the statement? Why?

Describe the ethnic composition of Belgium.                                         

How is the power-sharing model accepted by Belgium different from that of Sri Lanka? 

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Unit 2 FEDERALISM 

What is federalism?

1. Federalism is a system of government in which the power is divided between a central authority and various constituent units of the country.
2. Federalism has two levels of government:
a. One is the government for the entire country that is usually responsible for a new subject of common national interest.
b. The others are governments at the level of provinces or states that look after much of the day-to-day administering of their state.
3. Federations are contrasted with unitary governments.
4. Under the unitary system, either there is only one level of government or the sub-units are subordinate to the central.
5. In a federal system, the central government cannot order the state government to do something.

Let us look at some of the key features of federalism:

(i) There are two or more levels (or tiers) of government.
(ii) Different tiers of government govern the same citizens, but each tier has its own JURISDICTION in a specific matter of legislation, taxation and administration.
(iii) The jurisdictions of the respective levels or tiers of government are specified in the Constitution.
(iv) The fundamental provisions of the Constitution cannot be unilaterally changed by one level of government.
(v) Courts have the power to interpret the Constitution and the powers of different levels of government.
(vi) Sources of revenue for each level of government are clearly specified to ensure its financial autonomy.
(vii) The federal system thus has dual objectives: to safeguard and promote the unity of the country, while at the same time accommodate regional diversities.
(viii) There are two kinds of routes through which federations have been formed.
a) The first route involves independent States coming together on their own to form a bigger unit so that by pooling sovereignty and retaining identity they can increase their security. This is ‘coming together’ federations.
b) The second route is where a large country decides to divide its power between the constituent States and the national government. This is ‘holding together’ federations.

What makes India a federal country?

1. The constitution declared India as the Union of States.
2. The Constitution originally provided for a two-tier system of government, the Union Government or what we call the Central Government, representing the Union of India and the State government.
3. Later the third tier of federalism was added in the form of Panchayats and municipalities.
4. The Constitution contains three lists:
I) Union Lists includes subjects of national importance such as the defence of the country, foreign affairs, banking, communications and currency.
II) State Lists contain subjects of States and local importance such as police, trade, commerce, agriculture and irrigation.
III) Concurrent List includes subjects of common interest to both the Union Governments, such as education, forest, trade unions, marriage, adoption and succession.

How is federalism practiced?

1. Constitutional provisions are necessary for the success of federalism but these are not sufficient.
2. The real success of federalism in India can be attributed to the nature of democracy politics in our country.

Linguistic States:
1. The creation of linguistic states was the first and a major test for democratic politics in our country.
2. Many old States have vanished and many new States been created.
3. In 1947, the boundaries of several old states of India were changed in order to create new States.
4. This was done to ensure that people who spoke the same language lived in the same States.
5. When the demand for the formation of States on the basis of language was raised, some national leaders feared that it would lead to the disintegration of the country.

Language Policy:

1. The second test for Indian Federation is the language policy.
2. Our Constitution did not give the status of national language to any one language.
3. Hindi was identified as the official language.
4. According to the Constitution, the use of English for official purposes was to stop in 1965.
5. The central government responded by agreeing to continue the use of English along with Hindi for official purposes.
6. Promotion does not mean that the Central Government can impose Hindi on states where people speak a different language.

Centre-state relation:

1. Restructuring the centre-state relations is one more way in which federalism has been strengthened in practice.
2. In 1990 there was the rise of regional political parties in many States of the country.
3. This was also the beginning of the era of COALITION GOVERNMENT at the Centre.
4. Since no single party got a clear majority in the Lok Sabha, the major national parties had led to enter into an alliance with many parties.
5. This led to a new culture of power sharing and respect for the autonomy of State Government.
6. Thus, federal power sharing is more effective today than it was in the early years after the Constitution came into force.

Decentralization in India:

1. We noted above that federal government has two or more tiers of government.
2. But a vast country like India cannot be run only through these two-tiers.
3. Federal power sharing in India needs another tier of government
4. This resulted in a third-tier if the government called local government.
5. When power is taken away from Central and State government, it is called decentralisation.
6. As the local level, it is possible for the people to directly participate in decision making.
7. A major step towards decentralisation was taken in 1992.
8. The rural local government is popularly known by the name panchayati raj.
9. This is a council consisting of several ward members, often called panch, and a president or sarpanch.
10. They are directly elected by all the adult population living in that ward or village.
11. It is the decision-making body for the entire village.
12. All the panchayat Samiti or mandals in a district together constitute the Zilla Parishad.
13. Local government bodies exist for urban areas as well.
14. Big cities are constituted into municipal corporations.
15. This new system of local government is the largest experiment in democracy conducted anywhere in the world.

 

End of Unit 2

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Chapter 4  Gender Religion and Caste

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We look at three kinds of social differences that can take the form of social divisions and inequalities. These are social differences based on gender, religion and caste.

Gender and politics
Public/private divisions:
1. Boys and girls are brought up to believe that the main responsibility of women is housework and bringing up children.
2. This is reflected in a SEXUAL DIVISIONS OF LABOUR in most families: women do all work inside the home.
3. When these jobs are paid for, men are ready to take up these works. Most tailors or cooks in hotels are men.
4. In urban areas, poor women work as a domestic helper in middle-class homes, while middle-class women work in offices.
5. The result of this division of labour is that although women constitute half of the humanity, their role in public life, especially politics, is minimal in most societies.
6. Women in different parts of the world organised and agitated for equal rights.
7. More radical women’s movements aimed at equality in personal and family life as well. These movements are called FEMINIST movements.
8. We now find women working as scientists, doctors, engineers, lawyers, managers, managers and college and university teachers which were earlier not considered suitable for women.
9. In Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, Norway and Finland, the participation of women in public life is very high.
10. In our country, women still lag much behind men despite some improvement since independence.
11. Ours is still a male-dominated, PATRIARCHAL society.
12. Women face disadvantage, discrimination and oppression in various ways:
a) The literacy rate among women is only 54% compared with 76% of them.
b) On an average Indian woman works one hour more than an average man every day. Yet much of her work is not paid and therefore often not valued.
c) In almost all areas of work, from sports and cinema to factories and fields, women are paid less than men, even when both do exactly the same work.
d) In many parts of India, parents prefer to have sons and find ways to have the girl child aborted before she is born.
13. Urban areas have become particularly unsafe for women.
14. They are not safe even within their own home from beating, harassment and other forms of domestic violence.

Women’s political representation:

1. Yet issues related to women’s well being or otherwise are not given adequate attention.
2. One way to ensure this is to have more women as elected representatives.
3. In India, the proportion of women in the legislature has been very low.
4. The percentage of elected women members in Lok Sabha has never reached even 10% of its total strength.
5. In the government, cabinets are largely all male even when a woman becomes the Chief Minister or the Prime Minister.
6. One way to solve this problem is to make it legally binding to have a fair proportion of women in the elected bodies. This is what the Panchayati Raj has done in India.
7. There is more than 10 lakh elected women representatives in rural and urban local bodies.
8. Women’s organizations and activists have been demanding a similar reservation of at least one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for women.
9. A bill with proposal has been pending before the Parliament for more than a decade.
10. Gender division is an example that some form of social division needs to expressed in politics.

Religion, communalism and politics:
1. Let us now turn to a very different kind of social division, the division based on religious differences.
2. Many countries including India have in their population, followers of different religions.
3. Consider the following:
a) Gandhiji used to say that religion can never be separated from politics.
b) Human rights groups in our country have argued that most of the victims of communal riots in our country are people from religious minorities.
c) Women’s movement has argued that FAMILY LAWS of all religions discriminate against women.

Communalism
1. The problem begins when religion is seen as the basis of the nation.
2. Communal politics is based on the ideas that religion is the principal basis of social community.
3. Communalism can take various forms in politics:
a) The most common expression of communalism is in everyday beliefs.
b) A communal mind often leads to a quest for political dominance of one’s own religious community.
c) Political mobilization on religious lines is another frequent form of communalism.
d) Sometimes communalism takes its most ugly form of communal violence, riots, and massacre.

Secular state
1. Communalism was and continues to be one of the major challenges to democracy in our country.
2. Secularism is not just an ideology of some parties or persons.

Castes and politics

We have seen two instances of the expression of social divisions in the arena of politics, one largely positive and other largely negative.

Caste inequalities
1. Unlike gender and religion, caste division is special to India.
2. In most societies, occupations are passed on from one generation to another.
3. Caste system was based on the exclusion of and discrimination against the ‘outcaste’ groups.
4. Partly due to their efforts and partly due to other socioeconomic changes, castes and the caste system in modern India have undergone great changes.
5. Large scale URBANISATION, the growth of literacy and education, OCCUPATIONAL MOBILITY and old notions of CASTE HIERARCHY are breaking down.
6. Now, most of the times, in urban areas it does not matter much who is walking along the next to us on a street or eating at the next table in a restaurant.
7. Yet caste has not disappeared from contemporary India. Some of the older aspects of caste have persisted.
8. Effects of centuries of advantages and disadvantages continue to be felt today.

Caste in politics

1. As in the case of communalism, casteism is rooted in the belief that caste is the sole basis of social community.
2. Caste is one aspect of our experience but it is not the only relevant or the most important aspect.
3. Caste can take various forms in politics:
a) When governments are formed, political parties usually take care that representatives of different castes and tribes find a place in it.
4. Thus, it is not politics that gets caste-ridden; it is the caste that gets politicized.
5. This takes several forms:
a) Each group tries to become bigger by incorporating within it neighboring castes or sub-castes which were earlier excluded from it.
b) Various caste groups are required to enter into a dialogue and negotiation.
c) New kinds of castes groups have come up in the political arena like ‘backward’ and ‘forward’ caste group.

Chapter-6 Political Parties

Why do we need political parties?

1. Political parties are easily one of the most visible institutions in a democracy.
2. Parties have become identified with social and political divisions.
3. About hundred years ago there were a few countries of the world that had any political party: Now there are few that do not have parties.

Meaning:

1.

2. They agree on some policies and programs for the society with a view to promoting the collective good.
3. Parties reflect fundamental political divisions in a society. Parties are a part of the society and thus involve PARTNERSHIP.
4. A political party has three components:

Functions:

Basically, political parties fill political offices and exercise political power. Parties do so by performing a series of functions:
(i) Parties contest elections. In most democracies, elections are fought mainly among the candidates put up by political parties.
(ii) Parties put forward different policies and programmes and the voters choose from them.
(iii) Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country. Formally, laws are debated and passed in the legislature.
(iv) Parties form and run the government. As we noted last year, the big policy decisions are taken by the political executive that comes from the political parties.
(v) Those parties that lose in the elections play the role of opposition to the parties in power, by voicing different views and criticizing the government for its failures or wrong policies.
(vi) Parties shape public opinion. They raise and highlight issues. Parties have lakhs of members and activists spread all over the country.
(vii) Parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes implemented by governments.

Necessity

1. We need political parties because they perform all these functions.
2. The rise of political parties is directly linked to the emergence of representative democracies.
3. As we have seen, large scale societies need representative democracies.
4. Political parties fulfill these needs that every representative government has.

How many parties should we have?

1. In a democracy, any group of citizens is free to form the political party.
2. In this formal sense, there are a large number of political parties in each country.
3. More than 750 parties are registered with the Election Commission of India.
4. In some countries, only one party is allowed to control and run the government. These are called one-party system.
5. In class IX, we noted that in China, only the Communist Party is allowed to rule.
6. We cannot consider one party system as a good option because this is not a democratic option.
7. Any democratic system must allow at least two parties to compete in the election and provide a fair chance for the competing parties to come to the power.
8. In some countries, power usually changes between two main parties.
9. But only the two main parties have a serious chance of winning the majority of seats to form the government. Such a party system is called two-party system.
10. If several parties compete for power, and more than two parties have a reasonable chance of coming to power either on their own strength or in alliance with others, we call it multi-party system.
11. When several parties in a multi-party system join hands for the purpose of contesting elections and winning power, it is called an alliance or a front.
12. The multi-party system often appears very messy and leads to political instability.
13. At the same time, this system allows a variety of interests and opinions to enjoy political representation.

National political parties

1. Democracies that follow a federal system all over the world tend to have two kinds of political parties: parties that are present in only one of the federal units and parties that are present in several or all units of Federation.
2. Every party in the country has to register with the Election Commission. While the Election Commission treats all parties equally it offers some special facilities to large and established parties.
3. Parties that get this privilege and some other special facilities are ‘recognised’ by the Election Commission for this purpose. That is why these parties are called, ‘recognised political parties’.
4. According to this classification, there were six national recognised parties in the country in 2006. These are:

I) Indian National Congress
II) Bharatiya Janta Party
III) Bahujan Samaj Party
IV) Communist Party of Indian-Marxist
V) Communist Party of India
VI) Nationalist Congress Party

Two more added after 2011 

VII)ALL INDIA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS

VIII) NATIONAL PEOPLE PARTY 

As per latest publication dated 23 September 2021 from Election Commission of India, the total number of parties registered was 2858, with 8 national parties, 54 state parties and 2796 unrecognised parties.

State party

1. Other than these six parties, most of the major parties of the country are classified by the Election Commission as ‘State parties’.
2. Parties like the
I) Samajwadi party,
II) Samata party and Rashtriya Janta Dal have national level political organization with units in several states.

3. Some of these parties like Biju Janta Dal, Sikkim Democratic Front and Mizo national Front are conscious about their state identity.
4. Over the last three decades, the number and strength of these parties has expanded.

Challenges to political parties

1. All over the world, people express strong dissatisfaction with the failure of political parties to perform their functions as well.
2. The first challenge is lack of internal democracy within parties. All over the world there is a tendency in political parties towards the concentration of power in one or few leaders at the top.
3. The leaders assume greater power to make decisions in the name of the party.
4. Since one or few leaders exercise paramount power in the party, those who disagree with the leadership find it difficult to continue in the party.
5. The second challenge of the dynastic succession is related to the first one. Since most political parties do not practice open and transparent procedures for their functioning, there are very few ways for an ordinary worker to rise to the top in a party.
6. The third challenge is about the growing role of money and muscle power in parties, especially during elections.
7. Rich people and companies who give funds to the parties tend to have influence on the policies and decisions of the parties tend to have influence on the policies and decision of the party.
8. In some cases, parties support criminals who can win elections.
9. The fourth challenge is that very often parties do not seem to offer a meaningful choice to the voters.

How can parties be reformed?

1. Let us look at some of the recent efforts and suggestions in our country to reform political parties and its leaders:
I) The Constitution was amended to prevent elected MLAs and MPs from changing parties. This was done because many elected representatives were indulging in DEFECTION in order to become ministers or for cash rewards.
II) The Supreme Court passed an order to reduce the influence of money and criminals.
III) The Election Commission passed an order making it necessary for political parties to hold their organizational elections and file their income tax returns.

Besides these, many suggestions are often made to reform political parties:
I) A law should be made to regulate the internal affairs of political parties. It should be made compulsory for political parties to maintain a register of its members.
II) It should be made mandatory for political parties to give a minimum number of tickets, about one-third, to women candidates.
III) There should be state funding of elections. The government should give parties money to support their elections expenses.

2. These suggestions have not yet been accepted by political parties.
3. There are two other ways in which political parties can be reformed.
4. One, people can put pressure on political parties. This can be done through petition, publicity, and agitation.

Chapter- 7
Outcomes of Democracy

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Overview

1. We begin by thinking about how to access the outcomes of democracy.
2. After some clarity on how to think on this subject, we proceed to look at the expected and actual outcomes of democracy in various respects.
3. Our final verdict – positive but qualified.

How do we access democracy’s outcomes?

1. Democracy is the better form of government when compared with dictatorship or any other alternative.
2. We felt that democracy was better because of it:
I) Promotes equally among citizens;
II) Enhances the dignity of the individual;
III) Improves the quality of decision – making;
IV) Provides a method to resolve conflicts; and
V) Allows room to correct mistakes.
3. We face a dilemma: democracy is seen to be good in principle but felt to be not so good in its practice.
4. This dilemma invites us to think hard about the outcomes of the democracy.
5. Our interest in and fascination for democracy often push us into taking a position that democracy can address all socio-economic and political problem.
6. The first step towards thinking carefully about the outcomes of democracy is to recognise that democracy is just a form of government.

Accountable, responsive and legitimate government:
1. The most basic outcome of democracy should be that it produces a government that is accountable to the citizens, and responsive to the needs and expectations of the citizens.
2. Democracy is based on the idea of deliberation and negotiation.
3. Democracy ensures that decision-making will be based on norms and procedures.
4. The right and the means to examine the process of decision-making known as transparency.
5. Democratic governments do not have a very good record when it comes to sharing information with citizens.
6. In substantive terms, it may be reasonable to expect from democracy a government that is attentive to the needs and demands of the people and is largely free to corruption.
7. The record of democracies is not impressive on these two counts.
8. There is one respect in which democratic government is certainly better than its alternatives: the democratic government is the legitimate government.
9. People wish to be ruled by representatives elected by them. They also believe that democracy is suitable for their country.

Economic growth and development:

1. The inability of democracy to achieve higher economic development worries us. But this alone cannot be the reason to reject democracy.
2. The difference in the rates of economic development between less developed countries with dictatorships and democracies is negligible.
3. We cannot say that democracy is a guarantee of economic development.
4. But we can expect democracy not to lag behind dictatorships in this respect.

Reduction of inequality and poverty:

1. Perhaps more than development, it is reasonable to expect democracies to reduce economic disparities.
2. A small number of ultra-rich enjoy a highly disproportionate share of wealth and incomes.
3. Not only that, their share in the total income of the country has been increasing.
4. In actual life, democracies do not appear to be very successful in reducing economic inequalities.

Accommodation of social diversity:

1. It will be fair expectation that democracy should produce a harmonious social life.
2. Ability to handle social differences, divisions, and conflicts is thus a definite plus point of democratic regimes.
3. Two conditions in order to achieve the outcome:
I) It is necessary to understand that democracy is not simply rule by majority opinion.
II) It is also necessary that rule by the majority does not become rule by majority community in terms of religion or race or linguistic groups.

Dignity and freedom of the citizens:

1. Democracy stands much superior to any other form of government in promoting dignity and freedom of the individual.
2. The passion for respect and freedom are the basis of democracy.
3. This has been achieved in various degrees in various democracies.
4. Most societies across the world were historically male dominated societies.
5. Long struggles by women have created some sensitivity today that respect to and equal treatment of women are necessary ingredients of a democratic society.
6. Democracy in India has strengthened the claims of the disadvantaged and discriminated castes for equal status and equal opportunity.
7. Expectations from democracy also function as the criteria for judging and democratic country.
8. As people get some benefits of democracy, they ask for more and want to make democracy even better.
9. Most individuals today believe that their vote makes a difference to the way the government is run and to their own self-interest.