by Jennie S. Bev
Indonesia is a democracy, isn’t it? Some academics and pundits posit that it is a democracy by form, but not by substance. Others argue that it is an oligarchy and the rest say that it is a young democracy with a dark shadow of historical authoritarianism. The next presidential election will take place in 2014 and that in the United States will be in 2012.
While it is a good time to start observing and comparing the two, what do we particularly need to observe? And before it’s too late, what can we do to improve civic participation and people’s deliberation in the election and voting processes? According to Stanford University’s Communications professor James S. Fishkin, achieving “deliberative democracy” refers to bringing every voter to a condition in which they think through issues presented to them and that they themselves bring up. To achieve this, participation, political equality and deliberation play important roles.
