Party Ideology

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 8 analyzes how political party ideology affects the kinds of ethnic appeals candidates make. In terms of ideology, Indonesian parties fit largely into two categories: nationalist and Islamic. An analysis of election posters confirms the impact of this ideological distinction: Islamic party candidates tended to make Islamic bonding appeals, while nationalist party candidates made bridging and bypassing appeals far more frequently. Moreover, this ideological distinction was strongly mediated by the type of electoral system. In more party-centric legislative elections, candidates looked largely to the party and its ideology to inform their campaign, while in the candidate-centric regional head elections there was a scant relationship between party ideology and candidates’ appeals. Finally, the chapter studies regional political parties that competed only in the legislative election in Aceh. Compared to candidates from parties that competed nationally, Acehnese regional party candidates were more strongly affected by their party’s religious or indigenous ideological stance.