Definition of bicommunal
: involving or including two distinct communities of people : of, relating to, or being a society composed of two distinct or separate communities often with conflicting interests
- In the Canadian federation, there is a strong bicommunal element, given the fundamental English-speaking and French-speaking division.
- —Ronald L. Watts, Autonomy and Ethnicity: Negotiating Competing Claims in Multi-ethnic States, 2000
- In any case, neither the EU nor any supranational structure would possess any innate advantage in attempts to resolve bicommunal disputes such as that in Northern Ireland.
- —Derek W. Urwin, Regions and Regionalism in Europe, 2004
- Perhaps most importantly, Rwanda can be described as a bicommunal society. This term refers to a society where over 80 percent of the population belongs to one of two well-defined identity groups. Also, the two groups in Rwanda are not in balance. Bicommunal societies are marked by social differentiation and segregation, which often results in political separation or conflict.
- —John James Quinn et al., Ethnic Conflict and International Politics, 2004
