IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ctwqxx/v46y2025i2p153-169.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The limits of autocratisation in Indonesia: power dispersal and elite competition in a compromised democracy

Author

Listed:
  • Marcus Mietzner

Abstract

How does democracy survive in a polity that has witnessed consistent autocratisation trends for an extended period of time? In Indonesia, new patterns of autocratisation and broader democratic decline emerged in the late 2000s, but unlike some of its Southeast Asian neighbours, the country has not crossed over into the territory of full-fledged autocracy. This article argues that two interrelated factors explain this outcome: first, power was so widely dispersed in the early democratic transition that its renewed monopolisation would be hard to achieve; and, second, this power dispersal has underpinned an intense inter-elite rivalry that rebels against any attempt at restoring personalist autocracy. At the same time, elites have cooperated in the weakening of democracy as long as a residual framework for competitive rotation of power remains in place.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcus Mietzner, 2025. "The limits of autocratisation in Indonesia: power dispersal and elite competition in a compromised democracy," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 153-169, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:46:y:2025:i:2:p:153-169
    DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2024.2317970
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01436597.2024.2317970
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/01436597.2024.2317970?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:46:y:2025:i:2:p:153-169. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/ctwq .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.