Assessing democracy from below: A framework and Indonesian pilot study

Democratization

Volumn 13, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 227-255

  Törnquist, Olle ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OSLO   (Norway)

Author keywords

Democracy assessment; Democracy promotion; Democratization; Indonesia; Representation

Indexed keywords

DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION; DEMOCRATIZATION; ELITE POLITICS; INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT; MARGINALIZATION;

ASIA; EURASIA; INDONESIA; SOUTHEAST ASIA;

EID: 33645783722     PISSN: 13510347     EISSN: 1743890X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13510340500523937     Document Type: Article

References (52)

1. D. Beetham, S. Bracking, I. Kearton and S. Weir International IDEA Handbook and Democracy Assessment (The Hague, London, New York: Kluwer Law International, 2002).
2. See M. Mamdani, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996).
3. See J. Migdal, A. Kohli and V. Shue (eds), State Power and Social Forces - Domination and Transformation in the Third World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
4. See J. Sidel, 'Bossism and Democracy in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia: Towards an Alternative Framework for the Study of "Local Strongmen"', in J. Harriss, K. Stokke and O. Törnquist (eds), Politicising Democracy: Local Politics and Democratization in Developing Countries (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2004)
5. R. Robison and V. Hadiz, Reorganizing Power in Indonesia: The Politics of Oligarchy in the Age of Markets (New York: Routledge/Curzon, 2004).
6. The Dutch Institute for Multi Party Democracy, for instance, has initiated a new extensive programme in Indonesia and International IDEA has launched supportive research projects.
7. O. Törnquist, 'Repoliticisation of Democracy in Developing Countries: Reflections on an Emerging Trend', Paper presented to workshop on Supporting Political Party Systems, organized by Sida and the Collegium for Development Studies, University of Uppsala, 13 October 13 2004, and forthcoming in an anthology from Sida and the Collegium.
8. For substantiation of this conclusion and elaborations upon it in the following paragraphs, see the contributions and references in Harriss, Stokke and Törnquist (note 4).
9. An additional major assumption is that people may come to trust each other (or enjoy 'social capital'), put an end to struggles over their different interests, resist state interventionism and thus promote 'good governance' and economic development. Alternatively, in the view of radical students of 'post-industrial capitalism' and globalization as per M. Hardt and T. Negri, Empire (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), power has been so localized that there is no decisive central unit left to fight, and the dominant producers are themselves regulating social relations, so that strong parties and representative democracy are unnecessary.
10. On this see, for instance, J. Harriss, 'Political Participation, Representation and the Urban Poor. Findings from Research in Delhi'
11. and N. Chandoke, 'Seeing the State in India', both in Economic and Political Weekly, 12 March 2005.
12. See G. Mohan and K. Stokke, 'Participatory Development and Empowerment: The Dangers of Localism', Third World Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2 (2000), pp. 247-68
13. J. Harriss, Depoliticizing Development: The World Bank and Social Capital (London: Anthem, 2002)
14. and O. Törnquist, Popular Development and Democracy: Case Studies with Rural Dimensions in the Philippines, Indonesia and Kerala (Geneva and Oslo: UNRISD and SUM, 2002).
15. See for example, E.O. Wright and A. Fung, Experiments in Empowered Deliberative Democracy: Introduction (University of Wisconsin, Department of Sociology, 1999).
16. See at first hand, L. Avritzer, Democracy and the Public Space in Latin America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002).
17. With respect to Kerala, see T.M.T. Isaac with R.W. Franke, Local Democracy and Development, People's Campaign for Decentralized Planning in Kerala (Delhi: Leftward Books, 2000).
18. For critical analyses (from a sympathetic point of view) of those aspects of the often lauded case of Kerala see, for example, P.K.M. Tharakan, 'Historical Hurdles in the Course of the People's Planning Campaign in Kerala, India', in Harriss, Stokke and Törnquist (note 4),
19. O. Törnquist, 'The Political Deficit of Substantial Democratization', ibid.
20. and Törnquist (note 10).
21. The standard argument in Indonesia is made, on one hand, by scholars such as Professor Juwono Sudarsono, currently Indonesia's minister of defence and excellent radical structuralists such as Dr Vedi Hadiz on the other.
22. See, for example, Törnquist (note 10)
23. and S.A. Prasetyo, A.E. Priyono and O. Törnquist, Indonesia's Post-Soeharto Democracy Movement (Jakarta: Demos, 2003).
24. On these arguments see O. Törnquist, 'From New to Human Order in Indonesia?' NIAS nytt, No. 3 (October 1996) and Economic and Political Weekly (5 October 1996).
25. For the opposite, 'business as usual' position see R. Cribb, 'Megawati and the PDI Affair: Implications for Indonesian Politics', NIAS nytt, No. 3 (October 1996)
26. and for the 'ample opportunities for more open-minded politicians' position see H. Antlöv, 'Revolution or Peaceful Evolution in Indonesia?', NIAS nytt, No. 3 (October 1996).
27. For analyses at hindsight, see. E. Aspinall, Opposing Suharto: Compromise, Resistance, and Regime Change in Indonesia (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005)
28. S. Eklöf, Power and Political Culture in Suharto's Indonesia. The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) and Decline of the New Order (1986-98) (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2003)
29. O. Törnquist, 'Dynamics of Indonesian Democratization', Third World Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 3 (2000), pp. 383-433.
30. Advocating separate religiously grounded codes on certain matters as against universally applicable citizen regulations. 'We stick to that principle of peaceful coexistence, but of upholding sharia among Muslims'. 'New Party President Tifatul Sembiring', in Jakarta Post, 6 June 2005.
31. Prasetyo, Priyono and Törnquist (note 15).
32. For a good general analysis, see H. Schulte-Nordholt, 'Decentralisation in Indonesia: Less State, More Democracy?' in Harriss, Stokke and Törnquist (note 4).
33. H. Feith, The Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1962)
34. and for example. O.Törnquist, Dilemmas of Third World Communism: The Destruction of the PKI in Indonesia (London: Zed Books, 1984).
35. Beetham et al. (note 1).
36. Ibid.
37. Institutions are defined broadly as the rules of the game, thus including constitutional as well as informal arrangements. Conventions on democratic governance within civil society organizations for example, or that political parties should represent the opinions and interests of their constituents are also vital.
38. In addition to local experiences of the scholars and activists involved, these remaining parts of the framework draws primarily on N.P. Mouzelis, Politics in the Semi-Periphery (Houndmills: Macmillan, 1986)
39. Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement. Social Movements, Collective Action, and Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994)
40. and Törnquist (note 10).
41. This space for various actors within the spheres and arenas is addressed later in terms of the opportunity structure.
42. Populism involves charismatic leaders who are able to express popular feelings and ideas; clientelism is associated with patrons with their own capacity to deliver some protection in return for services and votes.
43. Tarrow (note 24)
44. and previous adjustments and applications in Törnquist (note 10).
45. The three sectors correspond with the previously identified major sectors of rights and institutions that are supposed to promote democracy. The 'Judiciary' is short for institutions in charge of controlling the application of rights and laws; 'Legislative and executive government' is short for institutions related to election, representation, legislation and implementation of laws and regulations. 'Civil society' is short for relatively autonomous citizen activities within media, culture, academia, associational life and various forms of direct democracy. The actors may be individual or collective, such as NGOs, interest organizations and political parties.
46. 'Social democracy' is not employed as a synonym for social and economic equality as the latter may be achieved by other means than through political democracy - which is the basic trust of the social democratic ideology of how to promote social and economic equality.
47. In the case of Pierre Bourdieu's concepts, the framework draws extensively on K. Stokke, 'Habitus, Capital and Fields: Conceptualising the Capacity of Actors in Local Politics', unpublished paper given at the seminar on Local Politics and Democratization in Developing Countries University of Oslo, 12 March 2002,
48. and Harriss, Stokke and Törnquist (note 4).
49. In our case this was conducted based on Prasetyo, Priyono and Törnquist (note 15).
50. We have enabled separate analyses of all the issue areas and five clusters of provinces: Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java-Bali, Sulawesi and Eastern Indonesia, in addition to the disturbed provinces of Aceh and Papua.
51. In our case of Indonesia the interviews were carried out in three of the issue areas that after the first round of the survey stood out as strategically important: Alternative local representation, party building, and attempts to broaden interest-based mass organizations. Thirty-five extensive interviews were carried out by the central team with nine informants in Sumatra, fourteen in Java, including Jakarta, three in Kalimantan, four in Sulawesi, two in East Nusa Tenggara and one each in Bali, Papua and Maluku, respectively.
52. Part of the background to Demos' work is that academically critical scholars were displaced from the academic world under Soeharto. Thus we are eager to contribute to the restoring of such critical milieus rather than to the 'privatization' of universities through NGO and think tank-driven research that is not always essential.