INTRODUCTION TO POLITICS

Academic Year 2020 2021 (20201)

MID SEMESTER
EXAMINATION
(MID TERMS PROJECT)

Submitted by:

Hugo Adventio
016202000059

International Relations (2020 -1)

Submitted to:

I Gusti Bagus Dharma Agastia, MSc

Date: October 25th, 2020.

Section A

1. Winston Churchill once said: “Many forms of Government have been tried and will be
tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise.
Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all
 those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Do you agree or disagree with
this statement? Defend your position using the theories you have learned.

Answer :

I agree with the statement above because, in my opinion, a government needs a certain
system to be able to make a policy that has a broad influence on the life of the state. In
developing countries, a democracy-based system of government is often used, including
Indonesia. However, when a democracy operates in an aggressive manner without emphasizing
freedom of speech, what happens is excessive polarization in decision making. A democratic
government system that should have been made to facilitate deliberation instead turned into a
"covert" authoritarian government system. Democracy is very difficult to apply realistically due
to the values it has too ideal. Until now there is no other form of government that has strong
support as its competitors. Democracy grows from Western Liberal values and then spreads to all
corners of the earth. The Italian Renesans triggered the return of Democracy to the zeitgeist
civilization in Italy in the 16th century. The idea of a government of the people by the people is a
bad type of government, says Aristotle.

And Plato[ CITATION Jon06 \l 1033 ] claims that a nation embracing a form of democracy
is not an ideal country. Ideally, the power in the hands of the people is not a political system.
Why? how can it be? Plato said democracy is a culture of adoration of freedom, which means
people openly share their opinions. This independence contradicts other people's rights and
responsibilities. This freedom is boundless, rules-free, and lawless. According to Plato,
Indonesian society is facing a transition to democracy. The state, the new political situation in
Indonesia reveals this change. Where Indonesian politics no longer recognize the importance of
solidarity today, Pancasila no longer interprets its importance, and the interests and duties of
fellow human beings are no longer valued. In the 2019 PILPRES, the electoral structure can be
assessed as a means for political elites to channel political action. In that, there is a violation of
freedom of thought. Political elites provoke people's emotions to form a political issue.

References
Wolff, J. (2006). AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY (pp. 66) . New York:
OXTORD University Press.
Section B

1. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is stated that education is a fundamental

human right. The phrase higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of
merit also appears. Why should “merit” be the basis of deciding who gets into higher
education? Discuss..

Answer :

I have gathered a spread of statements from experts in learning psychology, that

"Learning is that the outcomes of all those behaviors or tasks” [ CITATION Tul04 \l 1033 ]. And
there is the statement that "Achievement is the result of an action that is carried out
independently or in groups”[ CITATION Sya11 \l 1033 ]. Consequently, individual or joint actions
within the field will demand achievement. Meanwhile, I think learning is an endeavor or activity
that aims to make changes within a person, including changes in behavior, attitudes, habits,
knowledge, skills, and so on. In my opinion, it is different from learning achievement, because
learning achievement is defined as the mastery of learning outcomes by a person can be seen
from his behavior, both behavior shape mastery of knowledge, thinking skills, and skills motor.

From all the information I got, I can conclude that achievement is very necessary to
continue to the highest education because without achievement we have no desire to learn. How
can be like that? We can achieve achievements by creating or working on something. In
achieving something or creating something, we definitely need learning, because by learning we
will understand what is wrong and what is right. Therefore, without enthusiasm for learning, we
will not be able to achieve achievements, and without achievement, we cannot continue to higher
education. It could be considered like this, someone with achievement will definitely have a high
enthusiasm for learning, he still wants to know more about other sciences that he doesn't know
yet, and never feel satisfied with the knowledge he got. Unlike people who do not have
achievements or do not have high enthusiasm for learning, they tend to be lazy, don’t want to
learn a new thing and do not want to know about new knowledge out there. I think that's why
achievements are needed for education.
References
Djamarah, Syaiful Bahri (2011). Psikologi Belajar (pp. 21). Jakarta: Rineka Cipta.

Tu'u, Tulus. (2004). The Role of Discipline on Student Behavior and Achievement (pp. 75).
Jakarta: Rineka Cipta

Section C

1. Consider the following fictional scenario: In the not-so-far future, obesity is a global
epidemic. To fight obesity, governments mandate the use of a smartphone app called
NatFit . It tracks physical activity, such as jogging, cycling, etc., perfectly. Those who
record more activity will be granted with perks, such as reduced taxes or preferential
treatment in government services. Three years after the program was implemented,
obesity rates started to decline slightly. This was received positively by world leaders,
who unanimously decided to continue the app s use. At the same time, a new social trend
emerged: the division of society into two distinct groups, the Fitters (who were often
featured on the leaderboard of the app) and the Unfitters (who had bad performance). The
Fitters began to socially shame the Unfitters. This has led to an array of incidents, such as
verbal harassment, calling out, and even physical harassment of citizens who do not meet
daily fitness targets. The most dramatic case of harassment was the shaming of Eli
Waever, a 19-year old college freshman in Sweden. It ended with young Eli publicly live-
streaming his suicide globally, after being constantly harassed online for his continuously
dismal physical performance on the app. In 2040, ten years after NatFit was mandated, it
was finally terminated due to an explosion in worldwide levels of depression, especially
in young teenagers and people with disabilities and preexisting health conditions. In your
opinion, what went wrong? How did a program, with good intentions, turn into such a
nightmare? Discuss.
Answer :

In my opinion, the Application that was created is not wrong, it's just that users who feel
successful in their diet are wrong. Actually, the government's efforts have been good by creating
this application plus the provision of special prizes (such as reduced taxes or preferential
treatment in government services) for those who are trying not to be obese. It's also a factor that
makes a lot of people want to do it and the rate of obesity has decreased slightly. But on the other
hand, many people who want to lose weight are hard. There are those who just ate a little, the
weight has gone up again. But it is possible that they have made their best efforts right.

In my opinion, the fitters are wrong. Even though the government's efforts are already
good, why should they turn the business into chaos? Even though they also don't necessarily
know what the unfitters group has been doing, they may have tried their diet to the fullest but
still have no results. Fitters should be able to provide support to unfitters, such as teaching how
to diet the right way, what kind of exercise to really reduce calories a lot, how to set the right
diet. The fitters here cause the destruction of applications that have been made by the
government. But I also still have an opinion that the possibility of Unfitters has also not tried to
diet optimally, because after all the question does not explain whether Unfitters has done the
maximum effort or not. If only the unfitters had not done their best, then this error also occurred
because of them. Why are unfitters not serious about undergoing a government-given
application? even though there are already prizes that will be given if they do this program. If
they did their best, Unfitters could become fitters, but of course, all of that was not easy to do.
This is a human being, who feels that he is on top will drop the one below. Should be able to
support those at the bottom by providing support/teachings about the program, not by insulting,
harassing, body shaming, and so on.