Mar 04 2011
Democracy in the News 4
While writing this post, I was thinking about what we covered in lecture today about the emphasis of political culture in democratization.
Indonesia, the world’s third largest democracy, despite having democratized 13 years ago is still dealing with corruption and violence. However, Indonesians are grateful for the revolution that brought down Suharto, because of the freedom they have gained that has lead their country to blossom into an open society.
The government encourages Islam groups to help build the country and make themselves electable to the people. The Prosperous Justice Party is a political Islamist party that now has four ministers in the government. The article on Al-Jazeera suggests that “as the world’s most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia offers an example of how Islam and democracy go hand-in-hand”.
Thinking back to the lecture, we talked about which religious factors (and cultural factors) might be more or less likely to lead to democratization? We also noted that these factors should not be regarded in isolation but this seems to be the case in many countries trying to make the transition towards democracy especially in the Middle East.
Nice link Kate. On the specific Indonesia example, many analysts (and Indonesians) underestimate the importance that a strong sense of nationalism plays in moderating contemporary Islamists. There is a collective ‘we’ that stretches across religious boundaries. Voters tend to be wary when religious appeals seem to threaten national unity. Looking at the middle-east, I worry that citizens in several countries have only weak emotional ties to their fellow citizens. There seem to be many patriotic Egyptians, but are there many patriotic Bahrainis?