Inside the Democrat Party: Power, Politics and Conflict in Indonesia's Presidential Party

Abstract

This article examines the development of the Democrat Party (Partai Demokrat, PD), which won the 2009 legislative elections in Indonesia. PD has received little scrutiny from observers of Indonesian politics, largely because of a commonly shared view that the party is nothing but a political vehicle for Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the country's President since 2004. A closer look at the internal dynamics of PD, however, challenges this conventional view, reveals the diversity of political orientations and interests among party elites, and elucidates the emerging new patterns of party politics in the age of democracy. This article illustrates these internal dynamics and discusses the party's prospects for the post-Yudhoyono era.