Government in Indonesia

You likely have at least heard of Indonesia; however, if you are like a considerable number of people in different people around the world - particularly in North America - you may know very little about the Republic of Indonesia. On starting point on learning more about Indonesia is to consider some of the basics of the government of the country.

Through this article, you are provided a general, informational overview of the government of Indonesia. Armed with this crucial information, you will have taken a first and very solid step at getting to know the country - the Republic - of Indonesia a bit better.

As has already been mentioned in this article, Indonesia is a republic. As such, it has a presidential system with a parliament. The president of Indonesia serves as the head of state and the commander in chief of the Indonesian military forces. The president is also the director of domestic governance, policy making and foreign affairs which in effect makes the president of Indonesia the head of government as well. (By way of example, the president of the United States is also head of state and head of government. On the other hand, the prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government while the queen - or king, as the case may be at a future date - is the head of state.)

The president of Indonesia is responsible for appointing what is known as the council of ministers. These ministers are not required to be elected members of the legislature, of the parliament of Indonesia.

Beginning at the end of the 20th century, there have been some fairly significant reforms made to the Constitution of Indonesia. For example, the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the government of Indonesia have been revamped. In this regard, the presidential election held in 2004 represented the first time that the people of Indonesia directly elected the president and vice president of that country. (In order to put this in some perspective, however, it is important to note that the citizens of the United States did not directly elect their president or vice president during the early years of the country. The members of state legislatures selected the members of the Electoral College, there being no popular vote in the country for president or vice president. In fact, technically the citizens of the United States are voting for members of the Electoral College who actually are casting the votes for the president and vice president. In theory, it is possible for a member of the Electoral College from some states to vote for whoever they choose for president or vice president despite the results of the popular vote in that state.)

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