Democracy as the political system in Indonesia has a long history and many processes until it could be formed as the political system like nowadays. Indonesia with its proclamation proved the independence of the country and announced freedom from colonialism. However, although the independence of Indonesia stated it as a sovereign country, the people of the country still have a problem in sovereignty.
It made the government set different democracy political system of the state to make it ideal and suitable for the citizen. By this condition, it reflected a long history of Indonesia’s democratic political system since the independence until now. Nevertheless, is the democracy system that has been organized until now reflected the democracy of people and made Indonesia as a democratic country?
The definition of democracy based on Abraham Lincoln is the government of, by and for the people. It means that the people of the state have the same rights, chance and voice to organize the government policy. In democracy, decision was taken by the majority vote. By this definition, it made Indonesia has 4 periods of democracy system that changed through the progress of the state.
• Parliamentarian Democracy (1945-1959)
A year after the independence in 1945, government of Indonesia set a political system named parliamentarian democracy or liberal. This system based on Temporary Constitution 1950, made the prime minister as the leader of government, whereas the President has a role as the head of the state. It made the position of legislative, higher than executive. Based on this structure, the democracy in this system was weak and being dominated by the interest of political parties. Since the cabinet is always successive, it made th...
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...rol each other by the principal of checks and balance. In fact, this condition sometimes made one of the institutions, such as executive still could not create prosperity for the people, because of the absolute power that they have. It means that democracy was actually a theory that needs the real and suitable operation to create the real prosperity for all.
In conclusion, democracy as the political system in Indonesia has several changes according to the condition of people in the state, because they were the object in applying the system. Since the beginning of independence until now, democracy formed into different ways of method and application with the same goal, creating sovereignty for the people by government. It was a long journey until finally the government could found the suitable way, such as the system nowadays and still trying to create sovereignty.
Democracy’s major focus is on the freedom and representation of the people, along with the promotion of a the fluid free market system. “One man, one vote” being one of the inspirational quotes used to demonstrate the democratic outlook on the liberty within the government; and its ability to establish and make decisions based upon the will of the people. However, like our textbook, “Introduction to Comparative Politics,” points out, “No country fully satisfies all these criteria for democracy. Even in long established democratic states, there remains a gap—often a substantial one—between the aspirations and ideals of democracy and the practice and results of any actually existing democracy.” Furthermore, despite efforts to amplify this political system as a proper means for representation and freedom in other countries, various authoritarian regimes now present themselves under the guise of democratic political ideology in order to gain power.
In theory, the idea of democracy is a fantastic one, a system where the people can decide for themselves what happens in their lives through voting is truly wonderful. However, a system works only as well as the person
Before that can be established, I think a definition of democracy should be stated so that it may be called upon later in this essay. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, democracy is stated as "the principle of social equality and respect for the individual within a community" .
What do you think of when you hear the term “Democracy”? A democracy is a form of government in which the people have power to make decisions by them directly or by elected representatives. The word democracy describes a political system. In a democratic country, all eligible citizens have the right to participate, either directly or indirectly, in making the decisions that affect them. The term “Democracy has been very popular in the recent years. For me Democracy is considered the highest form of human evolution and I will explain why I hold it in such a high regard in my research paper by compare and contrasting the ancient Athenian democracy and to the modern American democracy. In my research paper I will start with a brief introduction on how democracy was established, followed by their beliefs and values, the governmental differences, how the decisions were and are being made, and end with the strengths and weakness of these two eras.
These two democratic forms of government are the most used to demonstrate the key concept of ideal democracy. The aim of having a democratic government is to achieve equality and have equal rights to vote. However, the democratic government is still facing many challenges that limits individuals in many aspects. Democracy is still struggling to accomplish in having the right to vote for certain ethnicity, women, race, religion, and other factors that may be taken account to. Tax systems are proposed directly for achieving economic equality, resulting in large gaps for income tax rate. Whereas, the poor in poverty might pay absolutely no tax or as little as one dollar, while the wealthier person has to pay 25-33% of his/her income towards the contribution. Having said, a democratic government allows all of the people to vote, nevertheless, if your opinion and beliefs differs from the majority, your voice will not be heard. In this essay, I will thoroughly analyze what exactly is democracy and what it means to have a democratic government. I will then contend to derive all of the barriers which limits opinion and
This paper examined general questions in which I tried to enhance in the concept of democracy, in evaluating the challenges through distinctive spheres of ideas and developments. All in all, democracy comprise of four essential principles; “a political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections. In a democracy, the citizen vote in free and fair elections, for their leaders who after being elected are accountable for their policies and their comportments in office. In a democracy, the people are sovereign; maintaining active participation, as citizens, in politics and electing their civic rights. In a democracy, the society must become knowledgeable about public issues and must participate in elections. However, the society should not be obligated to participate in elections nor to join a political party or an organization against their will. A democracy must persevere the human rights of all citizens. All citizens have essential rights that the government cannot take away from them. Those rights are freedom of religion and to express your own opinion and interest. Democracy and pluralism in the mass media. The right to form and join organizations as to associate with other people; to assemble freely and protests against the government. As well the right to move in and outside the country and no one can interfere or oppose those rights. However, everyone must exercise these rights concerning the law and for the rights of others. The rule of law, in which all laws must be applied equally to all citizens. For democracy to work, a system of regulation by statutes must be obeyed and not a system by individuals. The rule of law must protect the rights of citizens and limits the power of government. Still, after the critical review of theory and concepts, this paper proposed a research strategy using references from the readings of Richard
Democracy is control by the people. On the surface, this appears to be a superior form, but as Plato warned it is slow to react, oppresses of the minority, and lacks skilled leaders (Perry,
Firstly, K. Isbester mentions that democracy has a different meaning for everyone, as some can define democracy as a good aspect for development, on the contrary other believe that it is nothing more than voting after several years. Although, Latin America see democratic g...
Democracy can be defined as a type of government in which individuals are guided by representatives whom they elected. It is a society of people, everything for the people and by the people. In this type of government, it is the individuals who are superior and independent. They are able to have control over the government and are free to elect a government of their own choice. Freedom has a lot to do with democracy, as it is the core component in this subject. Democracy relies on the following conditions: co-existence of ideas and of parties, the right to free discussion, universal adult suffrage and periodic relations. In a historical aspect, democracy was highly regarded in ancient Rome and Greece. However, it had very little success. In
Democracy is robust, widely accepted and highly anticipated around the world. It is the triumphant form of government; dominantly used in Europe, North and South and America and becoming reformed and taking new roots in Africa and Asia. Although the term democracy is based on its Greek origin, demos kratos, meaning people rule, the term cannot be simply understood as such. Due to vast coverage, the adaptation of democracy has varied greatly, whether regionally, nationally, by state or through different branches of government. Perhaps this can be advantageous when the different categorizations listed above can use democracy to rule and suit themselves best, but other factors, such as globalization and neoliberalism, has caused the need for
Throughout history different types of instrumental regimes have been in tact so civilizations remained structured and cohesive. As humanity advanced, governments obligingly followed. Although there have been hiccups from the ancient times to modern day, one type of government, democracy, has proven to be the most effective and adaptive. As quoted by Winston Churchill, democracy is the best form of government that has existed. This is true because the heart of democracy is reliant, dependent, and thrives on the populaces desires; which gives them the ability for maintaining the right to choose, over time it adjusts and fixes itself to engulf the prominent troubling issues, and people have the right of electing the person they deem appropriate and can denounce them once they no longer appease them. In this paper, the benefits of democracy are outlined, compared to autocratic communism, and finally the flaws of democracy are illustrated.
Case, W.. (2001). Malaysia’s general elections in 1999: A consolidated and high quality semi-democracy. Asian Studies Review. Vol. 25. Number 1.
There have been enormous efforts to spread democracy as a political system throughout the world by the developed democratic countries and the international development organizations including the World Bank. By the late 1990s the United States alone spent over a half billion dollars to promote democratic expansion throughout the world (Diamond, 2003). These were done considering that the democratic system leads towards development. As a result in the late 20th century we saw a huge political transformation towards democracy. During the last few decades a huge number of countries adopted democracy as their political system. However, it retain a big question how far democracy is successful in bringing development of a country? At this stage, some people also criticizes the effort of democratization arguing that it is done without considering the context of a country, sometimes democracy is not ideal for all countries and it is an effort to extinct diversity of political system. In studying the literature regarding the debate, we found a paradoxical relationship between democracy and development. Some argue that democracy has failed to ensure expected outcomes in terms of development. While others confronted that democracy has a considerable impact on development. Another group of people argue that form of political system actually does not have any impact on development process. On the verge of these debates, some development institutions and academics throw light on why democracy is not working properly, and what measure should be taken to make it more successful in bringing effective development of developing countries. Consequently, this writing is an effort of revisiting the different views about impact of democra...
Democracy has come to mean a principle under whose flag has most of the developed countries aced in their race for Imperialism. It has gone beyond all previous governing systems and has made room for progress and development. By offering free and fair elections, democracy has redefined human dignity and patriotism. It has also helped to improve decision-making among the citizens, and brought down the crime level. Democracy is for sure the most fitting among the other types of government, and needs to be implemented fully for effective functioning of a state.
Actually, democracy is deemed to be a difficult form of government regardless if it is favourable circumstances or not. It seems to be all the more difficult when society’s economic environment is weak, civil society is still developing, and finally ...