Democratizing Political Parties Institution Through Checks and Balances Mechanism

Abstract

Political parties are the most important tools in creating a democratic society. But this only happens when they organize themselves democratically, not oligarchical as what is seen at almost all political parties in Indonesia. Most of party management is left entirely to a handful of people or even to only one person, the chairman. Thereby, the political party design is very dependent on the general chairman. The chairman power becomes very infinite and tends to be authoritarian. In fact, one-man-centered power will only lead to corrupt and undemocratic leadership. There should be a balancing institution within the institution of political parties to conduct the mechanism of checks and balances and the general chairman authoritarianism can be minimized or even prevented completely. At last, it is expected that there is a process of democratization within the internal political parties as absolute environment for political parties to become the pillar for the upholding of democracy of the nation. Keywords: democratization, political parties, checks and balances