Fighting Illiberalism with Illiberalism: Islamist Populism and Democratic Deconsolidation in Indonesia

The global rise of populist campaigns against democratic governments has revived the long-standing scholarly debate on how democracies can best defend themselves against anti-democratic challenges. While some view an aggressive militant democracy approach as the most effective option, others propose accommodation of populist actors and voters. Others again suggest a merging of the two paradigms. This article analyzes how the government of Indonesian President Jokowi has responded to the unprecedented Islamist-populist mobilization in the capital Jakarta in late 2016. Unsystematically mixing elements of all available options, Jokowi’s administration pursued a criminalization strategy against populists that violated established legal norms, and launched vaguely targeted but patronage-oriented accommodation policies. As a result, the government’s attempt to protect the democratic status quo from populist attacks turned into a threat to democracy itself. Indonesian democracy, I argue, is now in a slow but perceptible process of deconsolidation.

以反自由主义抗击反自由主义： 印度尼西亚的伊斯兰民粹主义和民主去巩固化

关键词： 民粹主义，印度尼西亚，民主，伊斯兰主义，宗教不宽容

反对民主政府的全球民粹主义运动的兴起复兴了关于民主怎样才能最好地抵御反民主的挑战的长期学术讨论。尽管有些人认为富有侵略性的激进民主方法最为有效，其他人则提出应满足民粹主义行动者和选民的要求。还有人建议两种范式的混合。本文分析了印度尼西亚总统佐科威(Jokowi)政府是怎样对首都雅加达2016年发生的前所未有的伊斯兰-民粹主义动员进行回应的。佐科威不系统地混合了所有这些战略中的元素，采纳了对违反了既定法律规范的民粹分子的犯罪化战略，并实行了满足民粹主义者要求的针对性模糊但是恩庇定位的政策。结果是，政府试图保护民主现状不受民粹主义攻击的尝试本身变成了对民主的威胁。 我提出，印度尼西亚的民主现在正处于一个缓慢但可察觉的去巩固化（deconsolidation）的过程中。

Translated from English by Li Guo