Understanding Democracy

Democracy comes from the ancient Greek meaning that demos meaning people and kratos government. Etymologically, democracy is derived from the word implies that people's demos and cratos or cratein which means government or power. In terms of terminology and conceptual democracy has several meanings: government by the people, who carried out either directly or through elected representatives; a political or social unit that has the authority of government; the general public who are considered as the main source of political power; and majority rule; the principles of social equality and respect of individuals in the community.

Sahid Gatara (2009: 252-253) understanding of democracy from the aspect of democratic forms using three main standpoints, namely:

First, from the perspective of the point of press, democracy can be distinguished between:

1.      The formal democracy, a democracy that upholds equality in politics, without an attempt to eliminate gaps in the economic field. Thus, economic and political opportunities for all people are equal.

2.      Democracy material, namely democracy which emphasized efforts to eliminate differences in the economic field, whereas equality in politics less attention, or even eliminated.

3.      Democracy combined, namely democracy synthesis of formal democracy and democratic material. Democracy seeks to take the good things and throw away the bad things from formal democracy and democratic material.

Secondly, from the point of view of the distribution of the will of the people, democratic forms can be distinguished, among others:

1.      Direct democracy, where the people directly express their will in a meeting attended by all the people.

2.      Representative democracy or representative democracy, where the people channeling his will, to elect their representatives to sit in the House of Representatives.

3.      Representative democracy with referendum system, which is a combination of direct democracy with direct democracy. This means, the people elect their representatives to sit in the House of Representatives, but this board is controlled by the influence of the people by referendum and people's initiative system.

Third, from the point of view of the tasks and the relationship between equipment in the country, democracy can be distinguished in several forms, among others:

1.      democracy with a parliamentary system, which in this democracy there is a close relationship between the legislature with the executive branch, only legislative body elected by the people, while the executive body is usually often called a cabinet headed by a prime minister who formed a majority vote contained in the legislature or in Parliament.

2.      Democracy with a system of separation of powers, democracy in the sense that power is separated into legislative power, executive power and judicial power.

3.      Democracy by referendum system, which is a representative democracy with direct control of the people's representatives.

There are two kinds of referendum, ie, a referendum obligator and facultative referendum. In a referendum obligator, policies or legislation proposed by the government or that created by the legislature can be executed after approval by the people with the most votes. In facultative referendum, the law made by the House of Representatives recently requested the approval of the people, if within a certain period after the law was announced, a number of people ask for it.