Comparison of Constitutional Requirements for Heads of State in Indonesia, the United States, and the United Kingdom Between the Principles of Non-Discrimination and People's Sovereignty

Authors

  • Muhammad Andrean Eka Syaputra Faculty of Law University of Bengkulu
  • Herlita Eryke Faculty of Law University of Bengkulu

Abstract

This study compares the constitutional requirements for heads of state in Indonesia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, focusing on the dilemma between the principles of non-discrimination and popular sovereignty. The requirements for heads of state reflect the application of the rule of law theory, which seeks to maintain legitimacy, political stability, and national integrity. Indonesia and the United States require candidates for heads of state to be natural-born citizens to guarantee exclusive loyalty, while the United Kingdom uses a parliamentary system with a monarchical head of state and head of government elected by parliament, without strict formal restrictions on citizenship. This study examines the meaning of these norms in the context of modern democracy, analyzes the potential for discrimination against naturalized citizens through the lens of international human rights instruments particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and interprets how each country harmonizes the principle of popular sovereignty with the protection of state sovereignty through normative mechanisms and leadership recruitment. The results show that these differences in regulations represent historical and sociocultural adaptations that adhere to the principles of the rule of law and constitutional democracy. The scientific contribution of this research lies in its human rights-based comparative analysis of three different constitutional systems in assessing the proportionality of citizenship requirements for head of state candidates in the era of modern democracy.

 

Keywords: requirements for heads of state, democracy, rule of law, non-discrimination, popular sovereignty, Indonesia, United States, United Kingdom

References

A. Legislative Agreements

Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia in 1945

United States. Constitution of the United States of America.

United Nations. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 1966.

B. Journal

Asshiddiqie, Jimly. "The Idea of People's Sovereignty in the Constitution and Its Implementation in Indonesia." Journal of Constitutional 7, no. 1 (2010): 1–20.

Dahl, Robert A. “What Political Institutions Does Large-Scale Democracy Require?” Political Science and Politics 38, no. 2 (2005): 195–200.

Lijphart, Arend. “Constitutional Design for Divided Societies.” Journal of Democracy 15, no. 2 (2004): 96–109.

Norris, Pippa. “Ballots Not Bullets: Testing Consociational Theories of Ethnic Conflict, Electoral Systems, and Democratization.” Electoral Studies 23, no. 1 (2004): 1–25.

Tushnet, Mark. “Comparative Constitutional Law.” In The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Law, edited by Mathias Reimann and Reinhard Zimmermann, 1225–1258. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

C. Books

Asshiddiqie, Jimly. Introduction to Constitutional Law. Jakarta: Rajawali Press, 2010.

Bogdanor, Vernon. The Monarchy and the Constitution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Budiardjo, Miriam. Fundamentals of Political Science. Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2008.

Dicey, A.V. Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution. London: Macmillan, 1959.

Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, dan John Jay. The Federalist Papers. New York: Bantam Books, 2003.

Isra, Balance. Indonesian Government System. Jakarta: Rajawali Press, 2018.

Kelsen, Hans. General Theory of Law and State. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1945.

Mahfud MD, Moh. Constitution and Law in Controversial Issues. Jakarta: Rajawali Press, 2012.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract. London: Penguin Books, 1968.

Downloads

Published

29-06-2026

How to Cite

Muhammad Andrean Eka Syaputra, & Herlita Eryke. (2026). Comparison of Constitutional Requirements for Heads of State in Indonesia, the United States, and the United Kingdom Between the Principles of Non-Discrimination and People’s Sovereignty. PALAR | PAKUAN LAW REVIEW, 12(2), 338–347. Retrieved from https://palar-fhukum.unpak.ac.id/index.php/palar/article/view/161

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 2 (2026): Volume 12, Number 2 April-June 2026

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Jurnal Pakuan Law review based on the provisions  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. / CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0  this license requires that you provide appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if any changes have been made. You may do so in any reasonable way, but not in any way that would imply that the licensor endorses you or your use. this license shall not use the material for commercial purposes. this license permits Share Alike If you mix, modify, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. No additional restrictions. You may not apply legal provisions or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Most read articles by the same author(s)