role of state in plural and unequal society
Plural society During research about plural societies, Asim Ejaz, Student of M.phil Political Science in Islamia university bahawalpur, Pakistan, presented his analytical summary about the book of Arend Lijphart, "democracy in plural societies" that it is so much difficult to achieve and stable democratic government in plural society. As Aristotle says about stable governing system that, “a state aims at being, as far as it can be, a society composed of equal & peers”. For the stability of democratic regimes, there must be social homogeneity and political consensus among the deep social divisions, and, there must be termination of political differences. There are these criteria, because, the factors that help in producing instability and breakdown of democracies. Arend Lijphart, therefore, used a particular form of democracy, “Consociational Democracy”, which is, according to him, may be difficult but it is not at all impossible to achieve and maintain stable democratic government in plural societies.
Federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions under a central (federal) government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division of power between them and the central government, is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of either party, the states or the federal political body. Alternatively, federation is a form of government in which sovereign power is formally divided between a central authority and a number of constituent regions so that each region retains some degree of control over its internal affairs.[1][2]