2 - Parliaments and Democratization

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.