Power sharing in multi-ethnic societies

In order to generate more democratic outcomes in multiethnic societies, all segmental groups with different ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds must be included within the decision-making mechanisms and all state institutions. This necessity triggered new approaches to explore state building processes in plural societies after post-conflict situations. And these new approaches refuse conventional democratic applications such as majoritarianism and offer new models of power sharing that reflect realities of multi-ethnic and multi-religious societies. Therefore, this thesis aims to increase awareness of policy makers and politicians and contribute to the generation of more democratic outcomes in a country like Turkey where many different ethnic, religious, and cultural groups co-exist. Also, the study emphasizes the deficiency on the related issue and seeks to draw the attention of academia where it is needed. In this study, the consociational and integrative power sharing models that emerged the late 1970s are examined. Institutional design for multi-ethnic societies that these approaches assert makes the focal point of the study. Also, Lebanon, with a long history of power sharing tradition, is examined as a case study to reflect upon the do's and don'ts for policy makers while designing a power sharing model.