DEMOCRACY

UNDIP
DEMOCRACY

 Accountability
 Representation
 Participation
DEMOCRACY

 Accountability
 Definition : At every level, there is oversight and everyone is
answerable to someone
 Principle : Government must make the best policies in favor
of society’s well-being and work as professional as possible
because they are accountable to society. They must have
accountability because their legitimacy comes from society.
Thus, government must be accountable to society.
 Accountability can be obtained through check and balance
 Fundamental basis : Separation of powers between
executive, legislative, and judicative (trias politica)
DEMOCRACY

 Accountability
 To ensure accountability of entire government:
 Society can do campaign, demonstration or protest
 To ensure executive’s accountability:
 Legislative (Congress) can overturn an executive order by
passing legislation that invalidates it
 To ensure legislative’s accountability:
 Executive can veto legislative (i.e. Bill Clinton when Congress
passed policy to ban abortion in 1996, Bush when Congress
passed policy to ban torture during investigation in 2008)
 Decisions of parliament can be scrutinised by the court system
(judicative), in accordance with the Constitution
 To ensure judicative’s accountability:
 Judges are picked by the parliament and can be sacked by them
too
DEMOCRACY

 Representation
 Definition : Government should represent the interest of society
because they have a right to be heard in political system
 Principle : Representation should be upheld because governent
derive their credibility or mandate directly from society
 Issue : Minorities
 Claim : Minorities need to be given seats in parliament, so that
they have more bargaining power in political system in order to
pass policies in favor of their well-being
 Why policies? They’re obliged to be done as legal instruments
 Problem : Failure against majority who have more number to vote
 Example : Quota for women in parliamentary
DEMOCRACY

 Representation
 Direct mandate
 Indirect mandate
DEMOCRACY

 Participation
 Definition : Unless there is a very good reason, everyone
deserves a vote and all votes should have equal weight (“by
the people, for the people”)
 Participation is a fundamental basis for democracy because it
underpins the other two principles
 Through voting, we give legitimacy for government to be
accountable
 Through voting, we can select candidates who can represent
our interests
 Issue :
 Children, prisoners, and immigrants should be allowed to vote
DEMOCRACY

 THW give quota for religious minorities in parliamentary

 THW extend voting rights to immigrants
 THBT judges should be elected directly by society
DEMOCRACY

 In post conflict states, THW prioritize democracy over

economic development