(iPoster) Diverse Activists’ Experiences under Democratic Erosion in Indonesia

• In Event: Poster Sessions: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries & Occupation, Memory, and National Identity
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries

Abstract

Democratic erosion rarely unfolds through abrupt regime collapse. Instead, it often advances gradually and selectively, producing uncertainty about the boundaries of permissible political action. This article examines how such uncertainty reshapes activist strategies under conditions of democratic backsliding. Drawing on 101 interviews with human rights and environmental activists in Indonesia, the study shows that democratic erosion fragments civil society responses rather than producing uniform adaptation. Activists embedded in different organizational positions encounter uneven exposure to selective enforcement of regulations, interpret political risk differently, and pursue divergent strategies as a result. The article develops a micro-level framework linking organizational position to state targeting, interpretation, and strategic adaptation. It identifies two forms of activist hedging under uncertainty: spatial hedging, which shifts where claims are made, and discursive hedging, which recalibrates how claims are articulated. Importantly, not all activists hedge. Boundary cases demonstrate that exposure to state targeting increases the likelihood of risk-sensitive adaptation without mechanically determining it. By foregrounding uncertainty and organizational differentiation, the article extends scholarship on democratic erosion and political opportunity structures. It shows how gradual and selective backsliding reorganizes civic space from within, producing stratified patterns of collective action that travel beyond the Indonesian case.

Author

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