Coercion in Search of Legitimacy: The Secular State, Religious Politics, and Religious Coercion in Indonesia under the New Order, 1967–1998

Metera, Gde Dwitya Arief

doi:https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-adk9-3j23

Work

Coercion in Search of Legitimacy: The Secular State, Religious Politics, and Religious Coercion in Indonesia under the New Order, 1967–1998

Public

Download PDF

The policies of secular governments in constitutionally secular countries are at times marked by the influence of religious politics. Religious politics is specifically defined here as a politics of extending the norms of religion into the public sphere through religious legislation. Thus, some governments lend the state’s coercive capacity to enforce religious norms and practices as seen in the issuance of religious laws. What these governments have in common is that they engage in religious coercion by the state and behave almost as if they were the ‘secular arm’ of religion, or what Max Weber refers to as bracchium saeculare. What explains the involvement of a secular government in enforcing religion? Under what conditions will the secular government accommodate religious politics and under what conditions will it suppress them? This dissertation examines religious coercion and religious politics conceptually, empirically, and theoretically. Conceptually it offers a typology that distinguishes countries based on the degree to which their states engage, or do not, in religious coercion. Empirically, this dissertation constructs an index measuring enforcement of religion worldwide which is referred to as the Religion Enforcement Index (REI) measuring 175 countries in the year 1990 and 2008. Theoretically, this dissertation proposes a theory explaining religious coercion by the state and the conditions under which religious coercion by the state emerges. In developing a theory of religious coercion by the state, this dissertation argues that a secular government will lend the state’s coercive capacity in the service of enforcement of religion in exchange for the symbolic legitimacy provided by religious elites supporting the tenure of the government. It contends that the secular government is prone to seeking out symbolic legitimacy from religion during the breaking down of its power foundations, namely the coercive and symbolic power resources. This theory is illustrated by evidence from case studies examining three specific periods of Indonesian political history. These three different periods exhibit empirically the puzzle of the variation in a secular government’s attitude toward religious politics. During 1966 to 1977, the secular military government of the New Order resisted religious politics and suppressed the Islamists. Interestingly, this attitude changed when in 1978 to 1988 the government accommodated religious politics. Finally, in 1989 to 1998 the government demonstrated a willingness to establish religion in the state by issuing more substantial religious legislation. These changes took place despite relatively constant important political and social factors, including the strength of the Islamists and the type of the political regime. Tracing political developments during these three periods within one country offers a unique opportunity to control important factors at the national level, and at the same time to identify the changing factors explaining the shift of the attitude on the part of the authoritarian New Order toward the religious politics of the Islamists.

Creator