Demokrasi: Siri 1

PENGERTIAN DEMOKRASI

Demokrasi adalah pemerintahan dari rakyat, oleh rakyat, dan untuk rakyat. Begitulah pemahaman yang paling sederhana tentang demokrasi, yang diketahui oleh hampir semua orang. Demokrasi ialah suatu bentuk kerajaan di mana kuasa menggubal undang-undang dan struktur kerajaan adalah ditentukan oleh rakyat. Dalam sistem demokrasi, undang-undang digubal sama ada oleh rakyat atau wakil yang dipilih oleh rakyat. Sebuah negara atau kerajaan yang mengamalkan sistem demokrasi adalah dipanggil negara atau kerajaaan yang demokratik.

Demokrasi merupakan bentuk pemerintahan politik yang kekuasaan pemerintahannya berasal dari rakyat, baik secara langsung (demokrasi langsung) atau melalui perwakilan (demokrasi perwakilan). Istilah ini berasal dari bahasa Yunani δημοκρατία – (dēmokratía) "kekuasaan rakyat", yang dibentuk dari kata δῆμος (dêmos) "rakyat" dan κράτος (Kratos) "kekuasaan", merujuk pada sistem politik yang muncul pada pertengahan abad ke-5 dan ke-4 SM di negara kota Yunani Kuno, khususnya Athena, menyusul revolusi rakyat pada tahun 508 SM. Demokrasi secara ekstrem boleh dilihat dalam sistem kerajaan seperti anarkisme dan komunisme (menurut teori Karl Marx ia merupakan peringkat terakhir pembangunan sosial dimana demokrasi adalah diamalkan secara langsung, dan tiada kerajaan yang bebas dari kehendak rakyat).

SEJARAH (ZAMAN KUNO)

The term democracy is first appeared in ancient Greek political and philosophical thought. The philosopher Plato contrasted democracy, the system of "rule by the governed", with the alternative systems of monarchy (rule by one individual), oligarchy (rule by a small élite class) and timocracy (ruling class of property owners). Although Athenian democracy is today considered by many to have been a form of direct democracy, originally it had two distinguishing features: Firstly the allotment (selection by lot) of ordinary citizens to government offices and courts, and secondarily the assembly of all the citizens.

All citizens were eligible to speak and vote in the Assembly, which set the laws of the city-state. However, the Athenian citizenship was only for males born from a father who was citizen and who had been doing their "military service" between 18 and 20 years old; this excluded women, slaves, foreigners (μέτοικοι / metoikoi) and males under 20 years old. Of the 250,000 inhabitants only some 30,000 on average were citizens. Of those 30,000 perhaps 5,000 might regularly attend any one or more meetings of the popular Assembly. Most of the officers and magistrates of Athenian government were allotted; only the generals (strategoi) and a few other officers were elected.

A possible example of primitive democracy may have been the early Sumerian city-states. A similar proto-democracy or oligarchy existed temporarily among the Medes (ancient Iranian people) in the 6th century BC, but which came to an end after the Achaemenid (Persian) Emperor Darius the Great declared that the best monarchy was better than the best oligarchy or best democracy.

A serious claim for early democratic institutions comes from the independent "republics" of India, sanghas and ganas, which existed as early as the sixth century BC and persisted in some areas until the fourth century AD. The evidence is scattered and no pure historical source exists for that period. In addition, Diodorus (a Greek historian at the time of Alexander the Great's excursion of India), without offering any detail, mentions that independent and democratic states existed in India. However, modern scholars note that the word democracy at the third century BC and later had been degraded and could mean any autonomous state no matter how oligarchic it was. The lack of the concept of citizen equality across caste system boundaries lead many scholars to believe that the true nature of ganas and sanghas would not be comparable to that of truly democratic institutions.

Even though the Roman Republic contributed significantly into certain aspects of democracy, only a minority of Romans were citizens. As such, having votes in elections for choosing representatives and then the votes of the powerful were given more weight through a system of Gerrymandering. For that reason, almost all high officials, including members of the Senate, came from a few wealthy and noble families. However, many notable exceptions did occur.

ELEMEN DALAM DEMOKRASI

Demokrasi moden mempunyai sifat-sifat dengan institusi-institusi berikut:

1) Perlembagaan yang menghadkan kuasa dan kawalan operasi formal kerajaan, sama ada secara tulisan, secara norma atau gabungan kedua-duanya. Lazimnya Perlembagaan akan memasuki doktrin pembahagian kuasa untuk memastikan seseorang itu tidak diberi lebih dari satu kuasa.

2) Pilihan raya untuk memilih pegawai-pegawai awam, yang dikelolakan secara bebas dan adil

3) Rakyat diberi hak mengundi

4) Kebebasan bersuara (berceramah, berhimpun dan sebagainya)

5) Kebebasan akhbar dan akses kepada media lain

6) Kebebasan persatuan

7) Semua orang dalam masyarakat menikmati hak yang sama dari segi undang-undang. Salah satu pra-syarat demokrasi ialah wujudnya Aturan Undang-Undang Rule of Law

8) Rakyat yang berpendidikan dan berpengetahuan tentang hak asasi manusia dan tanggungjawab sivik.


Sumber: http://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demokrasi dan http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demokrasi