I believe that it is possible for democracy to create stability in a society. Since a country’s leader is decided by the majority, this majority of the population will have the same values and viewpoints on how the country should be governed, leading to a similar consensus among them. This will result in fewer conflicts between most of the citizens.
In Singapore, Singaporeans get to choose which political party they would support to rule a particular area, such as the People’s Action Party and the Workers Party. However, no matter which party wins the election, there have been few cases of violent objections from the minority.
From the above example, we can see that democracy creates similar view among the majority, thus creating social stability.
However, I also believe that democracy can cause instability in a society. Although the majority has the same viewpoints, the neglected minority may cause problems. An example would be social stability issues like riots and demonstration, especially when the minority is a large one.
In Sri Lanka, 18% of the population is Tamils, making them the largest minority. As Sinhalese made up the majority, the government elected was largely Sinhalese. This government practiced unfair treatment between the two, leading to unhappiness within the Tamil community. The led to the formation of Tamil Tigers, who used violent measures to voice their objections and caused many conflicts in Sri Lanka. Although 18% may seem small, it equates to around 3.6 million of people. If this number of people were to combine forces, it is definitely enough to cause havoc in a country. True enough, there were many social stability issues in Sri Lanka in the past few years despite the Tamil Tigers being a small percentage of the Tamil population.
From the above example, it illustrates that even when majority are of a similar agreement, if the leaders do not treat the population groups equally, conflicts may still arise. Thus, democracy can also cause instability.
In my opinion, I believe that just democracy alone is not enough to create stability or instability in a country. There are many factors that also affect social stability, such as a stable economy, a professional army, citizens having a basic idea of democracy, etc. However, I believe that the underlying factor for social stability is equal treatment of the population by the elected leaders. In Singapore, the leaders treat both majority and minorities equally, thus there is stability. Whereas in the case of Sri Lanka, leaders were biased towards the majority, causing conflicts between the groups and thus instability. Thus, I believe that equal treatment is the underlying basis for stability.
In conclusion, I believe that it is possible for democracy to create stability in a society, but only at the expense when the government leaders treat the population with equality. [517 words]
