Power sharing is 'logical' says scholar

A leading advocate of the concept of power-sharing in divided societies has told a Northern Ireland audience that it is the most logical choice of governance in situations of potential or actual civil strife.

Distinguished political scientist Professor Arend Lijphart, who was awarded an honorary doctorate at Queen's University earlier this week, told the audience that close to half of his career had been devoted to the study of various aspects of power-sharing.

He said: "Power-sharing is not a difficult concept to grasp; in fact, its logic is so compelling that both many scholars and many policy-makers have come up with the idea completely independently of each other.

"In addition, power-sharing usually entails autonomy for these groups to run their own internal affairs (especially in the areas of education and culture), and proportional elections (instead of winner-take-all elections) so that even small groups can be represented by their own leaders."

Professor Lijphart said he began studying the issue in the 1960s with a focus on the Netherlands, his native country.

He said: "Religious conflicts between Protestants and Catholics and between orthodox and more liberal Protestants have deep roots in the Netherlands. The Dutch war of independence from 1568 to 1648 was a war of Protestant-led freedom fighters against Catholic Spain, and in the 12-year truce in this war, from 1609 to 1621, the two groups of Protestants found time to fight a civil war with each other.

"Tensions came to a boiling point again in the beginning of the 20th century, but they were resolved by a comprehensive agreement in 1917, called the 'Pacification' or 'Peaceful Settlement'. This was a power-sharing agreement that included all of the characteristics of power-sharing that I have defined."

Professor Lijphart explained that he extended his research to other divided countries, and found similar patterns of power-sharing in Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Lebanon, and Malaysia, and then became active in trying to convince people of the practical potential which it had to solve problems of conflict and division.

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