Most scholars agree that successful management of diverse societies requires democratic practices such as multi-party elections and effective protections for civil rights and liberties. This is because these practices provide a space for the articulation, representation and accommodation of divergent interests through peaceful means. However, democracy can also be extremely fragile in deeply divided societies due to those very divisions that democracy is meant to address. Countries around the world have sought to strike balance through different approaches to democracy, be it through power-sharing between groups, decentralizing power to more local forms of government, or simply curtailing the power of the government by empowering other institutions, such as courts. All of these options present their own opportunities and challenges, but underlying all of them is a need to account for diversity in the very foundations of democratic practice.