Democratic leadership in the Batak Tribe: lessons from Customary Law for modern governance

Abstract

The main aim of this research is to explore and analyse leadership in the very democratic Batak tribe in Indonesia from the perspective of Batak customary law. The research method used is normative juridical legal research with a qualitative descriptive analysis method approach and also uses an existing conceptual approach model on leadership to then generate new ideas. as well as processing primary data and secondary data. The findings of this study are that the leadership style resulting from Machiavelli's political philosophy tends to be expensive, and there is a political dowry. Then, leadership in the Trias Politics conception tends to manipulate and abuse power such as corruption, tyranny and dynastic power. As a result, gave birth to leaders who behave like immoral wolves, homo homini lupus. On the other hand, the leadership style of the Batak tribe from the perspective of Batak customary law tends to mean maintaining harmony, which is a noble cultural value in terms of organizational leadership related to social relations, a well-organized organization and power distributed evenly. Thus, it is hoped that this study will be useful for the government, legislators and other stakeholders to use as an idea and reference approach in making efforts to choose a harajaon leadership based on dalihan natolu, which is a medium that contains objective legal principles based on kinship, brotherhood and cooperation by the mandate of paragraph IV of the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.