Religious Organizations and Democratic Regression in Indonesia

• In Event: Religious Institutions, the State, and Society in Muslim-Majority Countries

Abstract

What factors lead religious organizations to either consistently cooperate or resist the state elite’s initiatives which promote democratic regression? This paper answers this question by examining the political responses of Indonesia’s two largest Islamic organizations - Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah - over the past seven decades (1950 to 2022) - to actions by multiple Indonesia regimes that lead into democratic regression in Indonesia. Utilizing comparative historical analysis, it compares cases of democratic regression during the 1950s and 2010s-2020s. The paper argues that the two organization’s different responses toward the democratic regression under Sukarno and Joko Widodo presidencies are driven not by their political ideologies, but by the clientelistic ties between the organization’s leaders and state elites. Nahdlatul Ulama historically likely to cooperate with the state to retain its political patronage, while Muhammadiyah likely to resist the state’s democratic regression policies since it has its own financial resources and less personal networks with the state elites.

Author

• Alexander R. Arifianto, Nanyang Technological University