Challenges to Indonesia's Democracy: Beyond Religious Polarization

Scholars of Southeast Asian politics tend to agree that, despite its many milestones in the past, the region's democracy is currently in a massive retreat. Hybrid regimes use elections to legitimize authoritarian governments, elected governments can be arbitrarily deposed without the people's mandate, and oppositional voices are systematically silenced. Substantive democracy is also difficult to achieve, with some governments misusing their mandates by issuing policies that are discriminative and authoritarian. There are two sources of such democratic regression: external and internal. The former, dubbed democratic erosion, refers to sources outside of the democratic regime, for example, the influence that an autocratic regime has on a democratic state due to their interaction. Meanwhile, an internal democratic regression takes place when the elected governments themselves cause a democratic decay, for example, due to the persistence of their authoritarian legacy, even when their elections had been free and fair. Indonesia, once considered a beacon for democracy in the region, is now facing these challenges. The article seeks to elaborate on the many examples of "executive takeover" to highlight Indonesia's democratic decay, and consequently analyzes what this means for its democracy going forward.

關鍵字

Indonesia ； democracy ； democratic decay ； executive takeover ； authoritarianism

並列摘要

研究東南亞政治的學者多同意，雖然該區域的民主在過去達成許多里程碑，但近來卻大幅倒退。混合政體（Hybrid Regimes）利用選舉來合法化威權政府，民選政府不經人民授權即被任意廢除，反對聲音則系統性靜默。部份政府濫用授權發佈歧視與威權政策，實質民主難以達致。此類民主回退有兩種根源：外在根源與內在根源。前者稱之為民主侵蝕（democratic erosion），意指源自民主政體之外，例如專制政權的影響。與之對比，後者發生於民選政府自身造成的民主衰退，例如起因於威權遺緒的持存，即便選舉是自由且公平的。在這區域一度被認為是民主燈塔的印尼，如今也面臨此種挑戰。本文旨在詳述數個「行政接管」（executive takeover）的例子來突顯這一國度的民主衰退，並藉此分析對於其未來民主發展的意義。

並列關鍵字

印尼；民主；民主衰退；行政接管；威權主義

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