What is Democracy?

The word ‘democracy’ comes from two Greek words which when translated mean
‘people power’. The origin of the ideas about democracy came from the ancient Greek city-
state of athens. In Athens they practiced a form of direct democacy in which all qualified
citizens were expected to take part in the government of the city. Outdoor public meetings
were held as often as forty times a year to decide everything from how public money should
be spent, whether or not go to war. Everyone there had a right to speak and decisions were
taken by a majority vote of all those present.

This system is often held up as the ideal form of participative direct democracy.
However, even in Athens not all people consiidered to be qualified citizens. Women, slaves
and anyone under eighteen years old were excluded from the democratic processes.

Nevertheless, athens was far more democratic than other states of the time. Most
countries were ruled by a monarch or another unelected leader ( such as an emperor or
tyrant) or by an oligarchy ( a group of a few nobles). So most people were not part of the
government at all.

It was thaught by the nobility that the mass of the people were not capable of
governing themselves or taking any part in government. The nobles believed that only they
had the necessary education, background and inherited qualities to make good decisions.

The idea that democracy is not possible without high levels of education and that
some people are born to be leaders still persist today. However, there are more examples
from industry in this country and in the Third World Countries to show that all sorts of
people, even those without formal education and qualification, can make sensible decisions
about their own lives.

Toward the end of the eighteenth century democracy began to re-emerged in

Europe. The all- powerful rule of monarchs was threatened by the French Revolution, and to
prevent it spreading to other countries more people were allowed to vote. By then the
nations in which democracy was developing were much larger than Athens. This led to the
development of representative democracy. Instead of all qualifying citizens being involved
in their own government, systems of indirect democracy developed in which the people
elected their representatives. These representatives made decisions on behalf of the people
who elected them.

During the nineteenth century two different views of democracy emerged and both
of them exist today: democracy as an ideal and democracy as a system.
 Democracy as an ideal means the people who supported this view were mainly those
who were fighting for a working class party. They saw democracy as a way to give more
people the opportunity to take part in government. They wanted power and control to be
shared more equally so that all people could be involved in determining their own lives.
From this view, democracy is an ideal to be worked towards. The political system would
need to change to include more people in more ways of making decisions. Democracy as an
ideal, was becoming popular at the beginning of this century.

The view of the democracy as a system was supported by those already in power in
the government; Liberals and Conservatives. They saw democracy as a way of choosing a
government. Democracy for them meant giving people the vote so they could elect leaders.
Once the vote had been extended to include all adults, then democracy had been achieved.
In this sense of democracy people do not have any direct part in government, only an
indirect one through their elected representatives. The influence of this second version of
democracy as a system has been the strongest of the two in Britain.

Task

A. Answer these questions

1. Originally there were two kinds of democracy: direct and indirect democracy. What
does the text say about them?
2. Why were women, slaves, and children not allowed to take part in the democracy in
Athens?
3. In what way was Athens considered far more democratic than other states of the time?
4. What is meant by representative democracy?
5. What happened in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century?
6. What are the differences between democracy as an ideal and democracy as a system?
B
1. Translate the above Text into good Indonesian! ( tugas individu)
2. Find the main idea of the text given! (tugas individu)
3. Construct a short note from what you know about Democracy in Indonesia and
other country (tugas kelompok)