Indonesia: The Benefits of Civic Engagement

Abstract

Indonesia’s successful democratization poses a puzzle. As a vast, lower-middle income country with scant tradition of open politics, Indonesia did not seem to be a good bet for robust democracy. But Indonesia enjoys an advantage: extraordinary levels of civic engagement. Indonesians participate in organizations at unusually high rates and display an exceptional level of interpersonal sociability. Spirited associational life has enabled Indonesians to constrain elites and sustain self-government by cultivating a sense of efficacy, fostering the cultivation and transfer of civic skills, and creating opportunities for individuals to be recruited into politics. Indonesia demonstrates how civic engagement can abet democratization.

Civic Engagement and Democracy in Post-Suharto Indonesia: A Review of Musrenbang, the Kecamatan Development Programme, and Labour Organising

“…This proposed that high levels of civic engagement in associations strengthened and sustained democracy by building a civic culture. Regarding Indonesia, Lussier and Fish (2012) argued that the high level of associational membership in Indonesia strengthened democracy in three specific ways. Firstly, by cultivating efficacy among individuals at the local level that built a perception that the individual could impact change at higher levels of politics.…”

“…Compared to other new democracies, research shows that Indonesia enjoys extraordinary high levels of civil engagement as identified by popular participation in associational life (Lussier & Fish, 2012). According to the Asian Barometer Survey, roughly 84 per cent of Indonesians belong to at least one organisation compared to 61 per cent in Malaysia and 51 per cent in Thailand (Lussier & Fish, 2012, p.74).…”

Die politischen Systeme Südostasiens

“…Angesichts dieser Befunde argumentieren manche Wissenschaftler, dass die Art und das Ausmaß des zivilgesellschaftlichen Engagements in Indonesien mit dafür verantwortlich sei, dass eine systembedrohende Krise der Demokratie bislang ausgeblieben ist (Mietzner 2012;Lussier und Fish 2012). Lussier und Fish berichten, dass je nach Untersuchungsdesign über 30 % (ABS) oder sogar mehr als 80 % (World Value Surveys) der Befragten angeben, Mitglied in mindestens einer sozialen Vereinigung zu sein.…”

Questioning The Essence Of Bureaucratic Neutrality Dialectical Relationship Between Freedom of Speech and The Impact of Digital Democracy in Indonesia

“…Statistical analysis of the data for Indonesia in the East Asian Barometer backs up this contention. It shows a positive correlation between respondents' sense of political efficacy and their likelihood of participating in campaign work, engaging in acts of contentious politics, and contacting public officials [3].…”