Dynamics of Power

The dynamics of power describes how power affect relationships between people in all aspects of social life. It is not inherently negative, but if abused it has the capacity to inflict great harm.

Democracy means rule by the people, a word originating from the ancient Greek words 'demos' (the people) and 'kratos' (to rule). A democratic system of government in which people have the power to participate in decision-making.

The most common form of democracy today is a representative democracy, where the people elect government officials to govern on their behalf such as in a parliamentary or presidential democracy.

Dutch political scientist Arend Lijphart developed consociational theory in the 1960s. This theory focuses on how to stabilize communities that are divided along ethnic or religious lines and develop democracy through power-sharing institutions.

Consociationalism is a form of democratic power sharing. Political scientists define a consociational state as one which has major internal divisions along ethnic, religious, or linguistic lines, but which remains stable due to consultation among the elites of these groups.

Consociationalism focuses on diverging identities such as ethnicity instead of integrating identities such as class, institutionalizing and entrenching the former. Furthermore, it relies on rival co-operation, which is inherently unstable. It focuses on intrastate relations and neglects relations with other states.

The goals of consociationalism are governmental stability, the survival of the power-sharing arrangements, the survival of democracy, and the avoidance of violence. When consociationalism is organized along religious confessional lines, as in Lebanon, it is known as confessionalism, which, is a system of government that is a de jure mix of religion and politics. It typically entails distributing political and institutional power proportionally among confessional communities.

Federalism on the other hand is a system of government in which the same territory is controlled by two levels of government. Generally, an overarching national government is responsible for broader governance of larger territorial areas, while the smaller subdivisions, states, and cities govern the issues of local concern.

Whereas, in political science, the term polyarchy (poly "many", arkhe "rule") a pluralist theory of democracy, was used by Robert A. Dahl, an American political theorist, to describe a form of government in which power is invested in multiple people. It takes the form of neither a dictatorship nor a democracy, in which political outcomes are enacted through competitive, if unequal, interest groups.

With consociationalism often failing in practice to solve any long-standing divisions between ethnic groups, it is apparent that although the theory offers significant help in the short-term phase of restructuring the government, centripetalism should be used to foster political integrity and cooperation, ensuring that all ethnicities have a say in the government, without the use of proportional representation.

Consociationalism often results in the corruption of many elites, political immobilism, and the integration of rebels into the government because of the dominance of nationalistic organizations, which only leads to the loss of political accountability and stagnation of the country.

Centripetalism, in contrast, leads to political moderation and compromise between ethnic groups, with the goal of creating a government that will not only represent the majority of the populace, but will also be accountable and function properly.

Centripetalism, stands opposite to the dominant paradigm of decentralism. The centripetal theory of governance argues that democratic institutions work best when they are able to reconcile the twin goals of centralized authority and broad inclusion.

Centripetalism, sometimes called integrationism, is a form of democratic power sharing for divided societies (usually along ethnic, religious or social lines) which aims to encourage the parties towards moderate and compromising policies and to reinforce the center of divided political spectrum.

Are consociationalism and centripetalism: friends or foes? Could the contemporary power-sharing theory be characterized by the impasse between consociationalism and centripetalism? What about hybrid power-sharing? Why are some democratic governments more successful than others? What impact do various political institutions have on the quality of governance?

Policy-making is a process involving an interplay of factors. Power dynamics is a balancing act that can only be positive if and when applied during dialogues to prioritize agendas, fast-track processes, reorganize positions, focus attention on resolving essential issues and foster constructive community involvement...

Food for thought!