Factors that determine the outcomes of politics of social divisions are:

(i)It depends on how people perceive their identities.
(ii) It depends on how political leaders raise the demands of any community.
(iii)It depends on how the goverment reacts to demands of different groups.

It becomes:

(a)When some social difference overlaps — with many other differences. 

(b) When one kind of social difference becomes more important than other and people start feeling that they belong to different communities.

It turs social division into political division and lead to conflict violence and even disintegration of a country.

Northern Ireland:This region of United Kingdom has been for many year site of violence and bitter ethnic political conflict. It was only in 1998, that the UK Government and the Nationalists reached a peace treaty after which the latter suspended their armed struggle.

In Yugoslavia: The story did not have a happy end. Political competition along religious and ethnic lines led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia into six independent countries.

Overlapping,

Cross-cutting