Militär und zivile Politik

Croissant, Aurel; Kühn, David

doi:10.1524/9783486707106

Cited by 40 publications

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“…Indeed, a simultaneous reading of much of the existing civil-military relation literature and the scholarship of democratic backsliding would predict such a pattern. As democratic quality rises, we are more likely to find strong democratic civilian control of the armed forces, including a ministry of defence governed by democratically elected civilian officials (Croissant & Kühn, 2011). Conversely, with declining democratic quality, the likelihood of civilian supremacy decreases, and the ministry of defence is vulnerable to the risk of re-militarisation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Democracy and Military Oversight in Crisis: The Failed Civilianisation of Indonesia’s Ministry of Defence

Mietzner

2023

Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs

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In 1998, Indonesia endeavoured to civilianise its defence department after decades of military-dominated rule. This civilianisation project was widely seen as a crucial element of democratisation itself. But the initiative ended in disillusionment: by 2014, the ministry was again placed under a conservative former general, and in 2019, it came under the control of Prabowo Subianto, an ambitious ex-military leader with strong ties to the pre-1998 autocratic regime. As a result, the reform drive in the ministry came to a halt, and civilians were marginalised again. This article argues that several factors account for this reform failure: first, the ministry’s long subordination to the military prior to 1998; second, the lack of will and power on the part of civilian ministers between 1999 and 2014 to pursue meaningful reforms; and third, a larger roll-back of democratic reforms beginning in the 2010s. Embedding these latest developments in a larger historical context, the article demonstrates that the defence ministry has been a barometer of Indonesia’s fluctuating democratic quality over time.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%