Indonesia: Tales of Presidentialization

“Presidentialization” signifies the effects of presidentialism on the structure and behavior of political parties and their leadership, on electoral campaigning and political rhetoric, on the relationship between executive heads and parliaments, and on the power of single politicians. Presidentialization in Indonesia is indicated by different developments: the growing dualism within some parties in terms of legislative–executive relations; the formation of clientelist and barely socially rooted parties existing as mere vehicles to nominate presidential or at least vice-presidential candidates; and a general tendency towards partisan dealignment and collusive coalition-building. Moreover, presidentialism has opened up avenues for personalization and populist campaigning, especially the case in 2014 and 2019, as a result of the rise of outsiders and the programmatic enervation of parties. This again has had a negative impact on the quality of democracy, for example via executive aggrandizement. Yet, to assess the consequences of presidentialism is a demanding task because the Indonesian system of government before 2004 already had some presidential features, because the political environment independent from the system of government has changed very dynamically since 1998/99 and because diverse factors interact in very complex ways – thus making it extremely difficult to isolate causal relationships.