Power sharing

Power sharing is "a way to exercise power in which representatives of distinct constituencies are included in a power-organ and make decisions jointly." The term refers primarily to a practice of inclusivity in decision-making, for instance in coalition governments or in inclusive military power organs. However, the term "power-sharing" is often used to refer to "power-sharing institutions": constitutional or peace agreement provisions – and at times informal pacts – through which conflict parties distribute political, military, or economic power among themselves according to agreed rules.

At the state level, "power sharing is intended to hold the existing state together with the active participation and support of its minorities, unlike strategies of genocide, expulsion, partition and control". Since the end of the Cold War, power-sharing systems have become increasingly commonplace in negotiating settlements for armed conflict. Power sharing is a central component of two schools of thought on ethnic conflict management: consociationalism and centripetalism.

Alternatives to power sharing may include coercive assimilation, assimilationist strategies, integrationist strategies, accommodationist strategies, multiculturalism, territorial pluralism.