Name : Muhammad Rizqi A

NIM : C0306035
Quiz I American Government

1) What is your understanding of democracy in America? How do you compare it

with democracy in our country?
Democracy is the basic principle in both countries, U.S. and Indonesia.
However, the application of democracy in both countries is different. To start
comparing the two, let me start by giving definition of what democracy is.
Democracy is a governmental system in which power is derived from a direct or
indirect free election of the majority and all adults citizen of a given country. The origin
of the word as we all know is from demos and kraits meaning the people and authority.
The two Greek words literary mean pure democracy, as if all people in a town
participate to make laws. To avoid the misunderstanding of this term, Republic is then
proposed by Plato to refer representative democracy. Hence, democracy deals with how
power is given through free elections to particular government which acts as the
representative of citizens in a country. This is the basic idea of democracy.
In America, democracy is the ideal system of government because in
democracy, people are given power to make laws through the system of representation.
However, in America, democracy itself is limited. There is a so-called constitutional
government which means that the power possessed by a democratic government is then
limited and dispersed to avoid a strong central or federal government. In one way,
America needs a unifying governmental system. But in the other way, due to their
characteristics for being individualist, America also demand a not too powerful central
government. Therefore, a constitutional government is needed. In this form of
government, power is separated into three branches i.e. executive, legislative, and
judicative. The three branches function to check and balance, it means to avoid a
centralizing power in one branch. For example, the legislative may propose a bill to the
executive, the president. However, the president may pass veto to the bill if he does not
want it to become a law, of course the veto is passed companied with reasonable
arguments. With these systems – check and balance and separation of power – U.S.
government has been considered as one of the best governmental system in the world.
The fact says so, and many countries also try to impose the same system in their
governmental system including Indonesia.
Indonesia applies the democratic system in its government. Even, after the
reformation era, it is said that Indonesia is one of the best democratic country in the
world. The system of transferring power to government is similar to U.S.’s system, i.e.
through free elections, even Indonesia is more open by doing direct vote to both house
of representative and the president. However, what makes Indonesia and America
different is located in terms of separation of power and check and balance. It is true that
Indonesian governmental is also separated into three parts executive (president),
legislative (house of representative /DPR) and judicative (Supreme Court/MA). But, let
us analyze where the power is. As the citizen of Indonesian, I can say that the power is
still located mostly in the hand of the President, the executive. It is true that the
legislative can pass veto. But, can it really be? I am going to give example of the recent
Indonesian government. In the house of representative, the coalition party, or let say the
majority reaches to 75% of the seats. While those who have decided to be opposition is
just 7% of the seats. The remaining has not decided where they will stand. Looking at
this condition, I can say that power is only located in the executive because the ruling
president now comes from the party that makes coalition. Surely, the majority will
support him. That is the first thing that I want to underline i.e. power is not separated
yet. The second is related to the check and balance system. We have the same three
branches as the U.S. But, once again, no branch can really check the other. I am going
to take issue of the rising price of oils and fuels last year. What did the House of
Representative do at that time? Logically, House of Representative consists of people
from each province in Indonesia. They should know more people’s burden. However,
they did not have the power, let us say, just to postpone the policy. It was great for them
to have the commission to investigate the issue later on. Yet, we never know what the
commission has found out.
Democracy is a good governmental system. Nevertheless, the application can be
vary. In U.S., democracy is applied as constitutional government which both gives
power to government and limits it at the same time. It is proven excellent system. As
Indonesia, it seems that this country is still learning to apply democracy. We cannot
compare the two countries for U.S. has applied it for hundreds of years while Indonesia
just since 1998. Indonesia should also not to copy-paste U.S.’s system. Rather,
Indonesia should reinvent democracy so finally Indonesia can have its own system.

2) How is power in political system spelled out in the American Constitution?

U.S. Constitution is also called an enduring document. It is praised for its
everlasting acceptance in organizing America. In the constitution, we can clearly see the
points that I have stated in the question number one, the separation of power and check
and balance.
The power of U.S. government is divided into three branches. The first branch is
legislative. It is located in the Article 1 consisting of 10 sections. The first three sections
explain us about Congress as the legislature and its two chambers: House of
Representatives and the Senate. The division of Congress is related closely to the great
compromise. When the constitution was drafted during the Constitutional Convention in
Philadelphia, the big state refused the equal representatives system which is supported
by smaller state. Between these debates, there were the federalist papers that were used
to convince smaller state to impose proportional (based on population) representatives
in the Legislative. Thence, there came the Great Compromise to both employ equal
representation in Senate and proportional representation House of Representatives. Both
chambers draft bills and have the power to impeach president. The rest sections of the
first article govern all powers and limitations possessed by Congress.
The next branch is the Executive that includes the President and its cabinet. It is
located in the second article of Constitution consisting of four sections. In this article,
there are qualifications for one to run as a president, powers of the president, and of
course limitations of president’s power. The third branch is the judicative that is
embodied in the Supreme Court as regulated in the article III of Constitution. Within the
three sections of the article lie definitions of Judicative branch, judging system, and a
special issue i.e. Treason against U.S. Unlike other branches, judicative position is held
for lifetime. Supreme Court has power to declare laws proposed by Congress and
approved by President as Unconstitutional. While the judges – Supreme Court members
– are selected by President and approved by Senate.
In the U.S. constitution, the separation of powers and check and balance systems
are defined in very general but very clear. But is shows us how U.S. clearly maintain
power so that it is not monopolized by one branch or other group. Because, America is a
land of freedom. Even, they believe that the good government should less govern.

3) The American Constitution owes its staying power to its simplicity and
flexibility. What process is used to keep the Constitution flexible? Elaborately
explain your answer!
U.S. Constitution is both simple and flexible. But, from these two
characteristics, it is till applicable in present days. A simple constitution has its own
advantages. U.S. constitution was passed in 1787. If only the writers of the constitution
already included specific terms inside it, the constitution itself would only be applicable
may be in twenty years or less. Times change, people change, and rules also change.
I can note two ways to make constitution still up to date. The first is absolutely
through amendment. There is an interesting fact concerning amendment of U.S.
constitution. First ten amendments were ratified in 1789. They were called Bill of
Rights. What interesting for me is, the federalist insisted not to include specific human
rights when they drafted Constitution back then. But it was themselves, the federalist,
who insisted the amendment of Constitution in 1789 by including Bill of Rights in it.
However, the good point of this is that they are aware that Constitution is the product of
mankind. It should not be glorified and to keep its purity as we keep purity of other
religious books. Amendment is needed to keep in pace with development in society.
The second way is through judicial review. Supreme Court is given power to
interpret constitution – not the Congress nor the President. Hence, one issue may be
interpreted differently concerning the background, time, and other elements that make
up that issue. With this judicial review is then Constitution can be very flexible to be
interpreted by Supreme Court. Citing Woodrow Wilson’s saying in the Government by
the People “The Supreme Court is a constitutional convention in its continuous
session”. By having this duty is then Supreme Court is called as the guardian of
constitution.
Through amendment and judicial review, U.S. Constitution is kept up-to-date. I
think we should give credits to those who drafted constitution in 1787 because it was
because of their future insights so they can make an everlasting and enduring document.

4) The First Amendment freedoms have never been made absolute rights. What is
the way to prevent the making of these freedoms absolute rights? Support your
explanation with an example!
Human rights have always become interesting topic to discus in U.S. In 1787,
human rights issue emerged as being rejected by the Federalist. But the Federalist
finally impose to include human rights in constitution under the first amendment in
1789.
When the Bill of Rights was included in the constitution, automatically, people’s
right would always be guaranteed under the protection of constitution. For example,
during Theodore Roosevelt era, there were many muckrakers. They were journalists
who exposed the corrupt government by publishing sensational news of bad images of
government. What could government do? They could not ban those journalists because
their freedom speech and freedom of press had been protected under constitution. If
government insisted to ban them, the government could be accused to violate the
constitution. Hence, they preferred to reply muckrakers’ news by publishing news
containing doctrine that those who are so-called muckrakers were just people who
wanted to get profit as much as they could.
The issue of human rights is then very big. You can do everything under the
banner of “this is my right to do that!” However, is it the freedom that is looked for?
No. The first amendment should be limited and the way to do that is related to the
previous number, that is through judicial review. The Supreme Court and its state and
local Courts have the power to interpret constitution. So, the interpretation may be
different fro one state to another.
For instance, I want to give example concerning porn materials. Generally
making porn materials are included in the freedom expression. There was a case, a very
famous one, concerning about pornographic materials: miller vs. California. In this
case, there was a debate about what is called as obscene materials. Previously, Supreme
Court has declared that Obscenity in arts is not protected by constitution. Finally, from
this case, there was an agreement of what is called as obscenity. An obscene work is
defined as: “(1) The average person, applying contemporary standards of the particular
community, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest in
sex, (2)It depicts or describes in a patently offensive way sexual conduct specifically
defined by applicable law or authoritatively construed, (3)The work, taken as a whole,
lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value”. From this issue,
government then has a constitutional right to do prior censorship to a movie. It is done
so that government can classify which movie that can be watched by all ages or by
adults only. Government has the right to ban a movie that contains obscenity as defined
at the three points above. With this prior censorship, government gives freedom to make
any film but at the same time gives limitation of what film that you cannot produce. If
the moviemaker still produces obscene films, government then can ban or even can sue
them for violating laws. So, those are the examples of the application of free but
restricted application of human rights in U.S.