Authoritarian Diasporas in Indonesia and the Philippines Compared

• In Event: Authoritarian Diasporas: Causes and Effects of Authoritarian Elite Dispersion

Abstract

This paper examines the trajectories of former authoritarian elites in Indonesia and the Philippines. In Indonesia, elite cohesion remained relatively strong up until the demise of the New Order dictatorship in 1998. In the Philippines, by contrast, the Marcos dictatorship had to accommodate and co-opt a broad range of interests to gain and maintain power. Consequently, the authoritarian successor party in Indonesia remained relatively cohesive across several election cycles after 1998 with little diffusion of ancient regime figures to other parties. In the Philippines, however, the authoritarian successor party was much less successful in establishing a strong footing after 1986. The authoritarian diaspora, in other words, was much larger compared to Indonesia. These different degrees of overlap between authoritarian successor parties and authoritarian diasporas (strong overlap in Indonesia, weak overlap in the Philippines) affected former authoritarian elites differently. Tracing the post-transition careers of the members of the last parliaments under the Suharto and Marcos dictatorships shows that, paradoxically, higher numbers of these elites lost elections in Indonesia after 1998 than in the Philippines after 1986. This suggests that the more cohesive New Order dictatorship gave birth to a relatively strong but inflexible authoritarian successor party, which led to many former authoritarian elites being voted out of power in post-1998 elections. In the Philippines, a weak regime party facilitated the rise of a relatively broad authoritarian diaspora that proved more resilient in post-transition elections.

Author

• Michael Buehler, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London