Social Division Affects Politics

Given below are two examples of two different countries to show how social divisions come to affect politics:

North Ireland

The divide between the two largest Christian groups in Northern Ireland, 53 percent Protestants and 44 percent Roman Catholics, took the form of politics. Nationalist parties represented the Catholics, who desired that Northern Ireland be reunited with the Republic of Ireland, which is overwhelmingly Catholic. Unionists who wished to stay in the primarily Protestant United Kingdom represented the Protestants. Later on, it took a more severe form, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of individuals. 

It was only in the year 1998, that the UK government as well as the Nationalists reached out for a peace treaty after which the struggle of armed forces was suspended.

Yugoslavia

Political struggle along religious and ethnic lines in Yugoslavia resulted in the country’s breakup into six sovereign republics. At the same time, not every manifestation of socioeconomic differences in politics results in such catastrophes. However, it has an impact on voting in most countries, particularly India.

Such examples convince people that politics and social divisions shouldn’t be mixed and social divisions should never be expressed in politics. Social divisions affect the voting in most counties and one community tends to prefer some party over others. However, it is not necessary that this would always result in the disintegration of the country.

In the system of democracy, competition is involved among the various political parties. The competition among the parties tends to divide any society and they start competing in terms of social divisions already existing in society. This may lead to the turning of social divisions into political divisions, ultimately leading to conflict, violence, or even the disintegration of society. This has already happened in many countries.