Division exists in the working of every democracy. Democracy involves competition in political parties. The competition among political parties tends to divide any society. If the society is existing with some sort of the social division, then the competition of the political parties will convert the social division into the political division. This conversion will lead to the disintegration of the country and society will face major conflicts and violence.
This has happened in many countries and it is well visible in the happenings of Northern Ireland. The region of the United Kingdom that is Northern Netherland has advent many years of violence and ethno political conflict. The main reason for the conflict is the population of the Netherland is divided into two major sects of Christianity that are 53% of Protestants and 44% of Roman Catholics. The two groups had the difference in their opinions where the Catholics joined the nationalist party which demanded that Northern Ireland should be unified with the Republic of Ireland which is already a Catholic country.
Whereas the Protestants were the unionist party which wanted to remain with the UK, the country which is already Protestants. This conflict between these two parties killed many of the militants and security forces. After the massive conflict, it was in 1998 that the UK government and Nationalist signed a peace treaty.
The political parties’ competition along with religious ethic division has led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia into six independent countries. Thus it is very much evident that mixing of the social division with the political parties competition will lead to major conflicts.
The social divisions influence voting system in most countries. The people from one community mostly favour some party which concerns them more than others. In many countries, there are political parties that focal point only on one community, this type of parties are even evident in India where BJP which promotes the Hinduism. Yet all this does not lead to the disintegration of the country.
