Amidst a global wave of democratic recession, comparative political scientists have often viewed Indonesia as a laudable exception. Praised for its stability and democratic progress since the end of authoritarian rule in 1998, Indonesia has been treated as a model for other states undergoing processes of democratic transition or consolidation. But a closer look at Indonesia’s record in recent years reveals that its democratization is stagnating. As this paper will demonstrate, predatory elites have tried to roll back reforms introduced in the late 1990s and early 2000s. While most of these attempts have been thwarted by civil society resistance, Indonesia’s democratic consolidation is now frozen at 2005-2006 levels. However, the reason for this democratic stasis is not societal dissatisfaction with bad post-authoritarian governance, as Diamond and others have suggested. Opinion polls clearly show continued support for democracy despite citizen disgruntlement over the effectiveness of governance. Thus, civil society has been the main bulwark in the defense of democracy against elite attempts at its erosion. This insight, in turn, questions the wisdom of the decision by foreign development agencies – in Indonesia, but other countries as well – to reduce their support for NGOs and instead intensify their cooperation with government.
