Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-01T14:08:07.318Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Parliaments and Democratization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2015

Get access

Summary

PARLIAMENTS IN TRANSITION AND DEMOCRACY THEORIES

The term democracy is complex and can be understood in many different ways. There is hardly any state which nowadays would not describe its own political system as a democracy. In Indonesia, too, all government forms since its independence in 1945 have called themselves a democracy. As there are so many interpretations of what democracy is and what elements belong to a democracy, a short definition as to what is understood as democracy in this study is necessary. Though the scholarly literature on democracy and democratic transition fills bookshelves, in the framework of this study, only some essential basic definitions and criteria will be presented.

Although theories of liberal democracy have recently gained prevalence, it may be argued that especially in the context of transitions, legitimacy is of special importance. This leads back in time to liberal theories of democracy. People' sovereignty is the main feature of virtually all kinds of liberal democracy theories (e.g., Hobbes or Locke). The embodiment of people' sovereignty used to be a matter of contention. Today, this idea has been transferred to a representative form of assembly. Rousseau' version of direct democracy is practised in very few areas and countries. As Robert Dahl stated: “The larger the unit, the greater its capacity for dealing with problems important to its citizens and the greater the need for citizens to delegate decisions to representatives” (Dahl 1998, p. 110).

Government by the people refers to the abstract ideal that people should govern themselves. In direct democracies, which were practised in Ancient Greece and today in Switzerland, people can decide in plebiscites directly on laws or specific political questions. In larger territorial units, this form of direct democracy that Rousseau intended is hardly practical and has therefore lost importance in the debate on people' sovereignty. The latter can be differentiated by the famous Gettysburg formula of democracy by Abraham Lincoln: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Government of the people means that society as a whole is the sovereign and that state power is only legitimate if it is in accordance with the free will and the agreement by the people. To express this free will, a society needs civic rights like freedom of expression, association, etc.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×