Poli sci Cleavage

These political divisions among people are called cleavages. Cleavages can be formally defined in a number of ways, to Stein Rokkan and Seymour Lipset (from the text book Representative Government in Modern Europe, pg. 235)for something to be a called a cleavage it must include three traits. The first necessary trait is to have a social division that distinctly separates people. It cannot simply be a political difference in ideology, like Republicans and Democrats in the United States. Secondly, those who are a part of this distinct background must be aware that they belong to the group and willing to act on it. Lastly, the distinct group must have some kind of organization. With these characteristics, people are able to influence the organizational structure and behavior of representative government. The most common type of cleavage is the center-periphery cleavage.

There are many different political actors in Belgium. They have so many different branches of government that the way they work is based on compromise. This is not easy for these actors to do. The people who elect these representatives to carry out their will and because of the diverse ethnic cultures within Belgium it is difficult to get anything passed as law. These actors know that they are pressured to get as much as they can in the parliament but they also understand that the system is made for incremental changes in policy, and to achieve this many actors trade and lobby for each others votes. It is up to these elites to make the political moves that will lead to a mutual cooperation. So to get encouragement for legislation that has been compromised the representatives will point to issues for endorsement along certain cleavages. This tactic is used to round up specific ethnic groups for their backing. Usually these kinds of compromises are not exactly what the people want to hear. The people criticize their representatives for this and feel that they are not being spoken for. This sort of dilemma makes being a politician a very under rewarding public task.

Cleavages definitely effect the way government works. In democratic states, like Belgium, these cleavages can be overcome by giving all types of people equal rights. The Belgian model also overcomes the more specific center-periphery cleavage by giving the minority French speakers their own legislature and veto powers.

n be found in most countries. This cleavage involves the “center”, who are people that are part of a culture that represents the �

Some topics in this essay:
Dutch French, United Secondly, Liberal Party, Dutch German, Arend Lijphart, , Flanders French, Modern Europe, Belgium Belgium, Christian-Democratic Party, french speakers, multiparty system, center-periphery cleavage, dutch german, minority french speakers, cultures french, consensus democracy, flanders brussels, legislative bodies, cleavage center-periphery, types people, cleavage center-periphery cleavage, french dutch german,