From public education to intermarriage to the many institutions in civil society promoting mutual understanding, there are countervailing forces acting to overcome ethnic, religious or linguistic cleavages.

Four in 10 people said reducing the number of city workers eventually would decrease the quality of city services - a response that reflected deep racial and ethnic cleavages.

This ethnic cleavage set the pattern which persists to this day; electoral politics in Fiji remains divided more by race than by ideology.

Nigeria is a lesser developed country, whose politics have been shaped by chronic military dictatorships, dependence on oil, ethnic and social cleavages, and a population too large to feed.

Most ominously, there are signs that in some countries political liberalization may be widening ethnic cleavages.

Also, there are substantial religious and ethnic cleavages in the Israeli political system that are given intense expression in Israel's democracy.

Since then the Gbagbo government has perpetuated the xenophobic attitude of its predecessors, further widening ethnic and religious cleavages.

The ongoing policies of the Polish state led to the strengthening of ethnic cleavages in the area.

This created a dangerous ethnic cleavage in Sri Lankan politics.

"And I know of nothing more powerful than capitalism to overcome ethnic cleavages," he said.