Election Results from Indonesia: Challenges for Democracy

This chapter examines the unique rootedness of Indonesian political parties after national independence and the surprising ideological congruence of voters and politicians. Mass–elite discrepancies were low against the backdrop of a politicized electorate and parties responding to voters’ demands.

The Accountability and Participation Research Programme undertakes comparative analyses of political processes that may foster or undermine the quality of democratic institutions and spread authoritarian politics and practices in the Global South and across the globe.

The GIGA Institute for Asian Studies investigates current developments in Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Australasia. Research topics include civil society–state relations, China and India in regional and global affairs, and the Indo-Pacific as a strategic space.

Indonesia’s government strives to confine civic spaces with the help of surveillance, Internet shutdowns, digital attacks, lawfare, as well as online manipulation by so-called buzzers. This is alarming because right-wing populist Prabowo Subianto could win the presidency in 2024.

Under the banner of countering disinformation, autocratising governments in Asia have recently stifled civil society by either exploiting existing information laws or passing new ones. This contributes to the erosion of civil rights, restriction of information flows, and the deepening of autocratic rule.

The case of Prabowo Subianto serves to exemplify the ideational approach of populism. This captures key elements of the political discourse, but only if a primary concept (a “thin ideology”) and secondary ideological components are clearly distinguished.

This chapter examines the unique rootedness of Indonesian political parties after national independence and the surprising ideological congruence of voters and politicians. Mass–elite discrepancies were low against the backdrop of a politicized electorate and parties responding to voters’ demands.

The Accountability and Participation Research Programme undertakes comparative analyses of political processes that may foster or undermine the quality of democratic institutions and spread authoritarian politics and practices in the Global South and across the globe.

The GIGA Institute for Asian Studies investigates current developments in Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Australasia. Research topics include civil society–state relations, China and India in regional and global affairs, and the Indo-Pacific as a strategic space.