independence since the Second World War, often after a political and even
armed struggle. The Commonwealth has never been more than a loose linkage
between member states, with no central authority, virtually no civil service,
and no general policies or founding treaty (the closest to this is the 1971
Declaration of Commonwealth Principles). It never became an economic
unity or an organized military alliance, though British politicians had tried to
develop it in both those ways from the end of the 19th century. Even the unity
given to it by the fact that the British monarch is its head means little, as several
members arerepublics. With the entry of the United Kingdom into the
European Unionits political and economic ties to its former colonies became
further weakened, although the Commonwealth remains the biggest interna-
tional association after theUnited Nations. During the late 1980s quite
serious conflicts arose between a majority of members of the Commonwealth
and the United Kingdom over the latter’s lack of enthusiasm for political and
economic sanctions against South Africa over that country’s apartheid
policies, with the consequence that British leadership of the association is
much less secure than previously. Ironically this may actually increase the
vibrancy of the Commonwealth as a multinational association. Increasingly the
Commonwealth uses threatened or actual suspensions from its proceedings to
censure members whose internal affairs, it considers, require reforms: since,
the late 1980s, Fiji, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe have suffered such
suspensions.
Communalism
A society characterized by communalism is one in whichethnicity,language
group, religion or other identification largely circumscribes the entire life of
the subculture in question. In such a society people will not only marry, reside,
speak, and carry out their entire private life inside their subculture, but this
pattern may be transposed onto social, economic and political institutions.
Separate wings of, for example, political parties and trade unions entirely
committed to one subculture are likely to exist, as in the linguistically-defined
Belgian party system. States may provide for separate education and broad-
casting structures to mirror the subcultures, as in the Netherlands where the
structures are defined by religion. Even where the structures are not formally
divided in this way, a society with a high degree of communalism will consist of
duplication of private organizations, such as separate football leagues and youth
clubs. While it is true that political life is always influenced by group identities
(seecleavage), communalism refers to an extreme form of such political ties.
In such a society politics, especially at the electoral level, cannot hope to
produce generalized public interest policies, because to a large extent the
individual voters do not see themselves as part of a nation-wide public, but
Communalism