Political Parties and Party Systems in the Reform Era in Indonesia

Abstract

In the “reform era” in Indonesia, political parties faced problems related to institutionalization, consolidating ideology, and sound platform. In addition, the party system in Indonesia is not yet compatible with the presidential system of government, so the government has not been effective. The study aims to identify the peculiarities of political parties and party systems in Indonesia developed during the reform era. The results showed that several factors made the level of party institutionalization not yet developed properly. First, the existing parties often experience draining and time-consuming confl icts so that there is no time to build the institutionalization of political parties. Second, party elites have not become party rules. And third, the party tradition that respects differences (democratic political culture) among party elites has not yet grown, elements of patrimonialism and even feudalism are still strong amongparty elites. The article is a research response to publications: Is Non-Western Democracy Possible? A Russian Perspective. Ed. by Alexei D. Voskressenski. New Jersey, London, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Chennai, Tokyo: World Scientifi c, 2017. 738 p.; Methodology and Praxis in Researching the Non-Western World: Dialogue between Alexei D. Voskressenski and Fred Eidlin as an Introduction to the Special Issue of “Comparative Politics Russia” // Comparative Politics Russia, 2019, No. 4, pp. 5-11.]; “Non-Western Transformations” (special issue) // Comparative Politics Russia, 2019, No. 4. (Ed.)

Keywords

• political parties
• party system
• ideology
• party recruitment
• democracy
• reformation era
• indonesia