Power Transitions and Leadership Successions in Government

The Determinant of Policy Termination Post-Leadership Succession in Indonesia Context

“…Leadership succession can be interpreted as a change of individual government leaders (Hart & Uhr, 2011). In a democratic country, leadership succession is manifested by a direct election mechanism (Cleary, 2007).…”

“…Leadership succession provides a different context for policy termination. Leadership succession is a change in leaders in government organizations (Hart & Uhr, 2011). In democratic countries, leadership succession is carried out by direct election (Helms, 2020).…”

Leadership succession in politics: The democracy/autocracy divide revisited

“…Following a suggestion by ‘t Hart and Uhr (2011c: 2, 5), the more complex phenomenon of how power changes hands can be conceptually distinguished into successions, understood as ‘personnel changes in individual leadership positions’, and transitions, understood as ‘a change in the party or coalition that holds government’. To avoid confusion, it is important to note that this understanding of transition, developed in the context of studying democratic political systems, is at odds with the prevailing terminology in the democratisation literature, where ‘transition’ is usually understood to refer to the gradual replacement of an autocratic regime by a democratised political order.…”

“…However, even in parliamentary democracies, successions do not normally come about all of a sudden. As ‘t Hart and Uhr (2011c: 5) emphasise, many successions are predictable, and ‘the anticipation process creates a whole dynamic of growing “lame duckness” for the incumbent’ – a term apparently consciously borrowed from the debate about presidents in presidential systems not eligible for re-election. Other things being equal, prime ministers begin to live on borrowed time as soon their party senses they might become an electoral liability, which can be well before the end of a single term.…”

“…This article looks into leadership succession at the level of political chief executives, that is, presidents and prime ministers. As Paul ‘t Hart and John Uhr (2011c: 5) suggest, while leadership succession is an ubiquitous phenomenon, succession at the top of the executive branch is ‘the most dramatic succession of all’. The dramatic element that ‘t Hart and Uhr refer to flows from the power usually resting in the hands of the political chief executive.…”