Populism and the Risks of Conceptual Overreach: A Case Study from Indonesia

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the competing political styles of the two presidential candidates in the 2014 and 2019 Indonesian national elections: current Indonesian President Joko Widodo (better known as Jokowi) and his challenger Prabowo Subianto. While both have been described as populists, we draw on the most recent ideational approach to the concept of populism to argue that only one of these political figures (Prabowo) should be defined as a populist. Jokowi’s political style, on the other hand, is better understood by applying the concept of technocracy. In identifying the competition between Jokowi’s technocratic style and Prabowo’s populist style, we argue that this case study from Indonesia points to the potential for the concept of populism to be misapplied where other concepts such as technocracy are more appropriate.