Digitalized Electoral Democracy, Subversive Politics, and Islam

Abstract

Increasingly democracy is becoming digitalized through the use of information technologies in the conduct of elections and political campaigns. At the same time, politics is becoming more contentious, and even subversive, as democracy fuses with divisive social issues and identity politics. This article examines the issue of subversive politics in a variety of democracy settings. As the authors show, subversive politics is an issue that is affecting emerging and established democracies. Yet, the effect can be more severe in the former as democratic institutions are still developing. Notably, Muslim-majority countries face major challenges in making democracy work due to subversive politics and the political and ideological conflicts between different Muslim groups. As such, the article niches on the intersection of (digitalized) electoral democracy with subversive politics with a special focus on Indonesia as a Muslim-majority democracy. The authors argue that Indonesia stands as an in-between case in the continuum of subversive politics. They show this by explaining how democracy failed in some Muslim countries, became threatened in consolidated democracies, and survives in Indonesia. The combination of institutional quality and relative independence of religious organizations in politics has been crucial for the way Indonesia deals with subversive politics.