...The role of the middle class in achieving democratic reforms in Asia Table of Contents 1. Abstract 3 2. Introduction 3 3. What is Middle Class? 3 4. Democratization (Democratic Reforms) 4 5. Democratization in Asia 4 6. Historical Cases of Democratization from Asia 4 6.1. Philippine 4 6.2. Taiwan 5 6.3. South Korea 5 6.4. Indonesia 5 6.5. Thailand 5 7. Middle Class & Democratization in Asia 6 8. Conclusion 7 9. References 7 10. Discussion Questions 8 1. Abstract This essay is about the role of middle class in the democratic reforms in Asia. It briefly discussed significance of middle class with many examples of democratic transitions in the region. 2. Introduction A question that is commonly raised about the democratization is that who make and strengthen the democracy, whether it is consolidated by elites or middle class? Many studies have given much emphasize to the role of elites in creation of democracy but the reforms happened in last two decades in Asia suggests that the contribution of middle class to the process of democratization can never be overlooked. In Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea we cannot imagine the completion of democratization if we ignore the role of middle class although it is mostly seen in supportive role but successful democratic transition was only possible with its active participation. 3. What is Middle Class? Middle class is relatively vague concept as it has different meaning for different people...
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...Name : Franklin Imanuel Supit ID : 3241722 INDIRECT ELECTION FOR THE REGIONAL ELECTIONS IN INDONESIA Primary Source * Based on The 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, Chapter VI , Article 18, Clause 4 (Regional Authorities) : “ Governors, Regents, and Mayors, respectively as head of regional government of the provinces, regencies and municipalities, shall be elected democratically.” This legislation can be accessed in the www.mahkamahkonstitusi.go.id or www.dpr.go.id. It is the highest constitution in Indonesia that substantiates the Indonesian values and laws. It is the 4th amended constitution that is relevant to this law issue. I located the legislation by entering the website of Indonesian Constitutional Court (Mahkamah Konstitusi) and I searched it by typing the keyword “1945 constitution” in the search engine and downloaded the pdf file on 15 September 2015. * Based on Act number 32 of 2004, Article 56 and number 22 of 2007, Article 1 concerning The Conduct of General Elections, which essentially state: “The regional election in the provinces, regencies and municipalities, herein after is referred to as the Election of regional heads, which is conducted in a direct, free, and fair way in the Unified State of the Republic of Indonesia based on Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.” These legislations support each other in substantiating the mechanisms of regional elections and provide the basic frameworks...
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...what is called “the Golden Straightjacket”, which is a set of guidelines that governments and businesses must follow to be successful in a unified market. Many economists, politicians, authors, and businesspeople have differing views on the costs and benefits of putting on the Golden Straightjacket. Tom Friedman, an economist and author, argues that the Golden Straightjacket is a good thing for the world economy, while Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, argues that free trade is a technique used to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Other ideas that have been argued are the effect globalization has on the spread of democracy. Tom Friedman argues that globalization is used to revolutionize governments to conform to democracy while Dani Rodrik, author of The Globalization Paradox, says that globalization actually hinders the spread of democracy. Klein, Rodrik, and Friedman offer differing views that reveal the various costs and benefits of globalization. Globalization usually refers to the global distribution of goods and services though reduction of barriers to trade. Globalization has existed for as long as there has been international trade. Our ancestors used trade routes such as the Silk Road and the triangular trade route, where goods such as cotton, silk, sugar, and other goods were produced through specialization and traded to obtain low cost...
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...Indonesia: Searching For The Ratu Adil In the 1966 Italian film ‘The Battle of Algeries, the insurgent leader Ben M'Hidi is having a conversation with one of his foot soldiers named Ali. During this scene Ben M’Hidi makes an observation that was true of many nationalist movements for self-determination during the 20th century by stating “It's hard to start a revolution. Even harder to continue it, and hardest of all to win it. But, it's only afterwards, when we have won, that the true difficulties begin. In short, Ali, there's still much to do. “ (Pontecorvo, 1966). Ben M’hidi’s words have rung true of a great many of the national revolutions as the world moved from an imperial world order to one of sovern nation states. The Indonesian archipelago has a history of civilization going back as far as the 7th century CE, but not a united one. The diversity of the region is exemplified in its current national motto, “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” (Unity in Diversity). However, prior to the 20th century this unity was largely nonexistent, and instead consisted of rival kingdoms and sultanates, vying for power with each other and technologically and socially backwards in relation to the Imperial powers which were becoming aware of the potential the region could serve to those who controlled its trade routes and resources. In the 17th century CE, Dutch traders realized the potential of East Indies trade, and set forward in consolidating power over the region. To gain control over the...
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...on starring in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway. The Pirates of the Caribbean star juggles his hectic professional life with a young family. He is married to Victoria's Secret model Miranda Kerr and they have an adorable two-year-old son Flynn. "I would love to take Flynn to see the pandas in Chengdu," revealed the 36-year-old. In an interview with the airline, he talks his and Miranda's favourite foodie cities, tips for combating jet lag and his love for London. Paper Edition | Page: 2 I have borrowed some words from Romeo and Juliet’s theme song and Harold Laswell’s phrase on politics for the title of this essay. In my view, these terms fit the issue well as the need mounts to embark on a different stage of reform in Indonesia. And yet, given the nature of the problems that appear to have hit all spheres of public life and mutated to all state agencies and officers, this nation seems to be confronted with a vicious circle in terms of where the reform movement should head. The recent survey results released by the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) suggested that the vast majority of Indonesians did not approve of the direction the country was heading in. Almost 60 percent of respondents took this stance, while around 30 percent said otherwise. These figures only serve...
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...colonial era, the extent of establishing democracy was questionable. (I) This was because ‘attempts’ highlighted that actions to adopt democracy was met with both willingness and resistance throughout 1945-1997. But before one evaluates the extent of success of these attempts, it is crucial to note that democracy meant that the state was ruled by the people, and existed in either in the liberal form or the parliamentary form. Additionally, one needs to consider the features of Western-style democracy, politically and economically. A democratic political model would have the presence of multi-party, free and fair elections as well as the separation of powers amongst the leaders of the country. A democratic economic model would adopt capitalism that promotes free trade and economic stability. (C) With these in mind, the assumption put forth by the question holds as we recognise that there were attempts, to establish democracy. (A) However, there were varying degrees of success when carrying out said attempts if one closely looks into individual features of democracy that was present (or not present) in the countries. (C) Therefore if one looks into the amount of presence of a democratic feature in the countries, it was to large extent that the attempts were successful. However, when one looks at the countries holistically the attempts to establish democracy was successful to only to a small extent throughout 1945-1997. (T) If democracy equates to the presence of many political...
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...their own national interest 5. The differences in Politics and Governments In ASEANs Charter, it wrote about the principles of democracy obviously in order to make ASEANs member countries believe in the government in the way of a constitutional means because promoting democracy can support ASEANs cooperation to be successful and also can maintain stability and peaceful in the region. However, the political systems of ASEANs members are obviously different in real. - Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, and Malaysia : Paliamentary Democracy - Indonesia and Philippine : Representative Democracy - Laos and Vietnam : Communist Socialism - Myanmar : Military dictatorship - Brunei : Absolute monarchy This difference have made Each country in ASEANs try to maintain their power and their political form. It makes ASEAN Integration is very difficult to be successful 6. Have a lot of conflict among ASEAN Member countries Almost of conflict cause from territory problem such as - Thailand – Cambodia territory problem in Preah Vihear. - Territory problem among Malaysia – Philippine - Indonesia 7. Socio-cultural differences The Southeast Asia region have a variety of race and religious, and also have different langugues in each country. - Buddhist : Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Singapore - Muslim : Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia - Christian : Philippine The different ways of life, beliefs, language, traditions, and culture make hard to understand...
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...Habibie accepted the nomination as the 7th term president, whom was the first Indonesia’s president that declared commitment to democracy and human rights [2]. This declaration came as a surprise as President Habibie was commonly regarded to be along side with President Suharto. Nonetheless, despite the continuous efforts by President Habibie, President Abdurrahman Wahid and President Megawati in advancing democracy in Indonesia, such as by increasing the freedom of press and expression, imposing checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches as well as forming a depoliticized military, democratization process in Indonesia unfortunately remains stagnant or worse, moving backwards mainly owing to the fact that the substantial democracy is still being overlooked albeit the democratic procedures were well established...
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...Indonesia – Asia’s Stumbling Giant Case Prepared for Prepared by Case Analysis The political, economic, and legal systems are the most important implication for international business. Those systems influence each other and build the attractiveness of a country as an investment site. This attractiveness is connected with potential long-term benefits and costs, and related with both those sides risk of running business activity. The central issue of this case is solving the problem which is connected with inappropriate, low level of foreign investment in Indonesia which is strictly related with the current economic, legal, and a lesser extent political systems. Indonesia was under the strong, totalitarian leadership of President Suharto over 30 years and this country has still struggled with problems deriving from lack of free market and democracy. The political system in Indonesia was an example of right-wing totalitarianism where some individual economic freedom was permitted. The corruption was rampant and bribes were necessary to running any businesses. Investments in this totalitarian country were not effective because even the economics was growing up, most benefits were consumed by Suharto and his “crony capitalism”. Nowadays, Indonesia is a young democracy with the excessive red tape and the endemically high level of corruption. In my analysis, I would like to define Indonesia’s goals which can enhance the economic development. I will...
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...revealed the phenomenon of the democracy implication that will represented in dialectic communication (public sphere) by “Political Community”(Habermas, 1992). MARKET [Civil Society (Organizations) & Private Sectors] Political Organization (Legislative) Product Organization (Government) Data of Civil Society Organizations (CSO) These platforms came from the several problems that causes the CSO development did not go well. Those issues related to the large numbers of CSOs in Indonesia, according to Kesbangpol (Nation Union & Political) of Ministry of Home Affairs Data showed that CSOs number in Indonesia reached to 139.957 CSOs, which are: Number of CSO 65.577 25.406 Registered at: Ministry of Home Affairs Ministry of Social Services 48.866 108 (Foreign NGO) Ministry of Justice & Human Right Ministry of Foreign Affairs Backgrounds Civil Society Organizations represent majority of society voices. Civil Society Organizations as a social control power in policy, in regulation, in the life of democracy. Parallel activities among Civil Society Organizations and Media can provide the transform of the social politic condition (to reach the civil society independency and the elites as well). CSO Problem Definitions The problems that interface Indonesia CSOs related with low capacity, low payment and high risks of CSO human resources; the result of IGI (Indonesia Governance Index) Survey in 2012 for Auditing of Good Governance Index in Indonesia shown that: Problem Definitions...
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...differences are described along two dimensions: collectivist vs. individualist and democratic vs. totalitarian. Economic systems are explored in terms of market characteristics: market economies, command economies, and mixed economies. Legal systems are discussed in terms of the protections they offer for business: intellectual property, product safety, liability and contracts. The opening case explores the political and economic situation in Venezuela since Hugo Chavez was elected president in 1998. The closing case describes the challenges facing Indonesia, a vast country populated mainly by Muslims that stretches over 17,000 islands. Indonesia, after decades of corruption and a near dictatorship, now has a newly elected president. OUTLINE OF CHAPTER 2: NATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN POLITICAL ECONOMY Opening Case: Chavez’s Venezuela Introduction Political Systems Collectivism and Individualism Democracy and Totalitarianism Economic Systems Market Economy Command Economy Mixed Economy Legal...
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...Indonesia-US Relations Indonesia is the largest Moslem country in the world and has the fourth largest population. Still, many Americans don't know much about this archipelago. Indonesia is strategically located in Southeast Asia, between Asia and Australia and between the Pacific and Indian Ocean. It is made up of over 17,000 islands and the population consists of over 300 ethnic groups, each with its own local language and local tradition, struggling for survival, maintenance and, in some cases, dominance. It has an estimated population of around 220 million people with 87% being Moslems. Indonesia recognizes 5 main religions (Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism & Buddhism), but Islam has been the most influential throughout the political and social parts of the Indonesian people. The country has an abundance of human and natural resources and there are many foreign companies operating in Indonesia, including the US. However, the downfall of President Soeharto and his military regime in 1998 has ended with a reform era filled with great political, social, and economic instability that has driven foreign companies, investors, and tourists away. In 2010, President Obama officially commenced the Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (CPA) with indonesia. This partnership begins a relationship marked by an agreement to merge and institutionalize cooperation based on agreed issues. These issues will be pursued according to a set of priorities, and carried out on a long-term...
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...Running head: ISLAM : GLOBAL CONCEPT AND PRACTICES 1 Islam : Global Concept and Practices DeVry University Sociology – 350N – Cultural Diversity in Professions Spring Semester 2013 Introduction The history of Islam, its’ concepts and practices is one of the most intriguing yet controversial religions known today. Worldwide, Muslims make up about 23.4 percent of the population, while Christianity makes up about 30 percent (Goodstein, 2011). A study published in 2009 by the Pew Research Center to get global concept of the Muslim population found, “Of the 232 countries and territories included in this study, 50 are Muslim-majority” (p. 5). The Center also found “While 80% of the world’s Muslims live in countries where Muslims are in the majority, significant numbers – about one-fifth of the world’s Muslim population – live as religious minorities in their home countries” (p. 7). With so many countries adhering to Islam and the growth of the Muslim population here in America and worldwide; how will this affect how non-Islamic countries communicate and interact with Islamic countries and how we communicate right here in the United States? If Muslim fundamentalists were not at the forefront of controversy in the war on terrorism, would Islam be a religion that sparks so much debate? Even before September 11th, there had been much controversy related to Islam. However most of it occurred on foreign soil. With significant bombings and terrorist attacks in Europe...
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...Asia’s Stumbling Giant Date: 11/15/2015 Business Brief (Case Analysis 1) General Description of Indonesia: In the early 17th century Dutch settled Indonesia. In 1942 to 1945 japan took over Indonesia. In 1957 first president Soekarno set up “Guided Democracy”. After that Suharto was the second president of Indonesia for 31 years until he resign in 1998. In 1999 the “fair legislative election” occurred in Indonesia. Indonesia is 255 million in population the world’s largest Muslims nation. It is located in the Southeastern Asia. 87% of the populations are Muslims. People speak more than 700 languages in Indonesia (CIA, 2015). The Central Issue of Indonesia: During Suharto rule, from 1967 to 1997, he utilized “crony Capitalism” and using the business enterprise for his personal and family support. That lead Indonesia to a “black hole” for ten years facing economic crisis and political issue. In 2004 Indonesia started its first fair election. However, at this time Indonesia faced many issues in the economic and politics, which let it behind the Asia neighbors such as China, Malaysia, and Thailand. The GDP fall, inflation declined, the unemployment stayed high, and the foreign investors left the country. The main central issue in the Indonesia was high level of endemic problem of corruption. According to the Transparency International, studies shows that Indonesia is ranked 100 out of 183 counties as most corrupt. Indonesian Lawyer Todong Mulya Lubis mentioned, “Change...
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...THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN DEEPENING DEMOCRACY SHEILA S. CORONEL EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Since the 17th century, the role of the press as Fourth Estate and as a forum for public discussion and debate has been recognized. Today, despite the mass media’s propensity for sleaze, sensationalism and superficiality, the notion of the media as watchdog, as guardian of the public interest, and as a conduit between governors and the governed remains deeply ingrained. The reality, however, is that the media in new and restored democracy do not always live up to the ideal. They are hobbled by stringent laws, monopolistic ownership, and sometimes, the threat of brute force. State controls are not the only constraints. Serious reporting is difficult to sustain in competitive media markets that put a premium on the shallow and sensational. Moreover, the media are sometimes used as proxies in the battle between rival political groups, in the process sowing divisiveness rather than consensus, hate speech instead of sober debate, and suspicion rather than social trust. In these cases, the media contribute to public cynicism and democratic decay. Still, in many fledgling democracies, the media have been able to assert their role in buttressing and deepening democracy. Investigative reporting, which in some cases has led to the ouster of presidents and the fall of corrupt governments, has made the media an effective and credible watchdog and boosted its credibility among the public. Investigative reporting...
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