At this moment our nation is facing perhaps the reforms too far, so many people who complain when the old regime's transition to a more democratic regime ended.
While waiting for the passage of the transition period, it helps us see a moment where the indicators that can guide us toward democracy.
Democratic system can be measured, among others, the role of political parties and political performance standards. What is the appearance that political? There are three standards of appearance that is citizen participation in elections, government stability and security of public order.
Citizen participation in elections
Participation of citizens in a competitive election is a special characteristic that distinguishes democratic politics from politics nondemokratis. Full participation of citizens not only strengthens the legitimacy of democratic political system but also help prevent the occurrence of political violence and munyalurkannya into a regular competition. Several factors electoral participation among others:
Number of participation.
Number of participating in the election only one form of participation in the political process. Participation in the democratic system can also be done in other formats such as discussion of issues that are warm, in a campaign of mass mobilization, collective effort to influence government policy, and communications with government officials. Various forms of participation manyebabkan number of participants in the election was not the only indicators of high and low political participation. That sababnya election participants low in the U.S., Switzerland, Turkey and Jamaica.
Meaning Selection.
Elections to be meaningful if it changes its administration under the provision that the winning party to replace the defeated party in such cooptation in America. However, it does not mean that no change of government is a mirror of the state is not democratic. It may be that certain parties like the LDP in Japan continued to govern. This can happen because of trust in the LDP is very high, so that the election of another party would raise doubts on the part of the mass of voters.
Stability and Government Effectiveness.
Parliamentary government stability is measured by whether there are changes in the composition of political parties in the cabinet and also the Prime Minister did not stop by force. Stability is measured from the continuity of presidential government despite the president's cabinet changes. End of a rule is if there is selection, or entry or exit of a party from the cabinet, military intervention.
The effectiveness of the parliamentary system is more easily measured than the presidential system. In a parliamentary system, during the parliamentary majority remained controlled by the cabinet, the government is stable. Viewed from this measure, the U.S. does not belong to the effective governance. Because Congress controlled by the party opponent in the long term.
Political Order Maintenance:
In non-democratic regimes very little opportunity to correct the government. Criticism is limited in the form of petitions or should only be done by a certain elite. Meanwhile, conflicts and political tensions tend suppressed as much as possible until it reaches its lowest point. If necessary use violence to wage such emphasis.
In a democratic system of corrections, conflict and dissent is channeled through the institution of elections. So the correction to the government through elections can be done officially by every adult citizen.
The size of the failure of political order.
The failure of political order can be measured, among others, the indicator unrest (riots), mortality (deaths) and delay a government democratically.
Riots are a large number of citizens acting outside of planning and control without damaging the goods of the population. America and India belong to the rank tertihggi in terms of unrest. Death may occur due to riots or terrorist berseniata. India and the Philippines was ranked top in terms of deaths due to political violence.
Delays / removal of the democratic system can occur due to military intervention, or if any political activity prohibited by the government or the revocation of civil rights by the regime in power.
Democracy worked well in countries where the population is small, with a high level of economic development and ethnic homogeneity. In contrast, large countries more tinged with riots and deaths from political violence. Countries with low economic growth and the poor are generally too much political violence and death, low participation rates and the government was not stable.
Citizen Involvement
Compulsory vote and the number of voters democratic countries that implement obligations to its citizens choose accompanied by dubious penalties include Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Venezuela and Costa Rica. In these countries resulted in the number of voters cast their liability is much higher than countries that do not require citizens to vote like America for example. In contrast the Dutch who tried to remove these provisions suffer from decreased number of voters. While Uruguay by issuing a statutory vote voters get more results than before.
Mobilization Party
In Europe the relationship between the groups in msyarakat with political parties affect the number of voters in the election. For example, farmers are more confident with the government dominated by the party of "the People". While the workers are more likely to choose the government of the party's "socialist". By contrast, in other countries party relies on various types and levels of society which is plural.
Constitutional And Political Performance.
The relationship between the constitution and political appearance embodied in other forms such as system of government and parliamentary prasidensial system.
Presidential System
Its main characteristic is the president (top executive) is selected for a certain period and is done through direct election. This form of government executives mumungkinkan stability.
If the executive is directly elected and he has his own voter base so it does not depend on the legislature. Thus the president is not easily overthrown by the parliament which may hold a majority of parliament. However, separation of powers expressly president (executive) with power legisistif often impede the implementation of government programs. Especially if the parliament does not agree with the government program. If the parliament controlled by the opposition, the government likely will be pamerintah minority. Situation where the party controls the executive and legislative rights may also occur. In these circumstances it is clear that the executive is dominant, the dominance of the executive is not without danger. Because the dominant executive if the continuity of his government threatened to change the system of non-democracies like munjadi democracy in the Philippines.
Parliamentary System
Parliamentary systems tend to be more stable and effective because the ruling party in the executive branch to control the government and the wisdom of the Cabinet for instance can use the powers of government to strengthen the position of ruling party
(Bulletin Research and Department of Defense)
