Speaker: M. Faishal Aminuddin
Lecturer in Department of Political Science at University of Brawijaya
Day : Thursday, 22 June 2017
Time : 17.00 ~
Venue : Tonantei room, 2nd floor of Inamori Memorial Foundation Building, CSEAS.
Commentator: Ehito Kimura.
Associate Professor at the University of Hawai’i, Fellow at CSEAS.

Abstract:
Study on political elites in sub-national politics in post-1998 Indonesia did not pay much attention to identify the shifting or continuation of structural change in the post-New Order authoritarianism. From a case study in East Java, this presentation shows the change and continuation of political elite structure. Democratization does not necessarily produce significant changes that shift the position and privilege of the old political elites. Their organizational power might have declined, but their control over patron-client relationship remains strong. This presentation finds that the political changes were, institutionally, not strong enough to cause the significant damage to the patron-client relationship developed during the New Order era. The democratization pressure has only caused the partial diversification of elites’ political affiliation while the inter-intra elite power relations model has not changed much. This presentation portrays the pattern of elite structure and its continuation from the perspective of historical institutionalism. This presentation is based on my observation from 1998 to 2017 and combines three levels of analysis: First, identify the phenomena of identity politics in electoral contestations. Second, conduct a historical analysis to unravel the lingering patron-client relations within the old political structure, transitional and new structures. Third, make a comparison of patterns, actors and mechanisms between the authoritarian period and post-authoritarian period, especially in the political economy. This presentation provides a new contribution to the understandings on the dynamics and changes in the structure of political elites in sub-national politics in the era of democratization in Indonesia.

M.Faishal Aminuddin is a lecturer in Department of Political Science at University of Brawijaya. His research focuss on comparative democratization in new democratic countries. He studied Ph.D in comparative politics at the Heidelberg University Germany.