Post-authoritarian Context Research Articles

Constitutional Values, Legal Politics, and Political Stability: A Comparative Analysis in the Post-Authoritarian Context of Indonesia

This paper explores the intricate relationship between constitutional values of equality and justice and their impact on political stability, with a specific focus on Indonesia's post-authoritarian context. Constitutional ideals, while crucial, face challenges in translating into tangible outcomes due to implementation gaps and entrenchment of inequalities. The study employs a comparative analysis of national constitutions, examining cases where provisions of justice and equality either succeeded or failed to foster stable political environments. Pathways linking constitutional equality to political stability are scrutinized, emphasizing both procedural and substantive dimensions. The research employs political stability indicators to unravel the nuanced relationship between constitutional principles and governance outcomes. In the context of Indonesia, the paper delves into the complexities of legal politics during the transition from the New Order to reformasi democracy. The post-authoritarian landscape witnessed struggles for freedom of expression and human rights enforcement, reflecting the challenges of aligning legal frameworks with democratic principles. The analysis considers the uneven progress in rule of law reforms, navigating the legacies of patrimonialism and oligarchic influence

Continuity and Complexity: A Study of Patronage Politics in State-owned Enterprises in Post-authoritarian Indonesia

ABSTRACT This study explores the role of patronage in Indonesian State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) by analyzing board appointments between 2004 and 2019 under two different presidential administrations—those of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Joko Widodo. The study is based on a content analysis of board members and their political affiliations in fifteen of the largest Indonesian SOEs and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a former minister, high-ranking officials in the government, political party members, CEOs, and SOE board members. The study identifies how key patrons influence board appointments and how the sitting president, a pivotal patron in the post-authoritarian context, strategically uses patronage for power consolidation and political stability. Given the financial significance and power of SOEs, placing loyalists on boards serves the interests of ruling political parties and elites. This also enables elites to produce even more patronage, which is beneficial for their personal political machinery. This intricate interplay sustains the presence of patronage in Indonesia’s democratic landscape.

Extreme-Right Violence in the Portuguese Transition to Democracy

Abstract The Exército de Libertação de Portugal [ELP; Portugal’s Liberation Army] was one of the most infamous clandestine organizations active during the Portuguese transition to democracy, bringing together far-right militants from the deposed authoritarian regime. This organization has been considered the most dangerous terrorist group fighting for the restoration of Estado Novo’s regime. This article aims to challenge this statement, recurrently defended by international historiography, through an in-depth case study of the ELP, which is assessed in its genesis, structuring, ideological identity, strategy and operative capacity, permeability to repression, and dissolution. This study is based on a qualitative methodology triangulating data dispersed in the existing scientific and journalistic literature with data collected, unprecedently, in private archives and through face-to-face interviews with former ELP militants. Therefore, this paper is of importance to scholarship on the Portuguese transition to democracy, but also on the role of the extreme right in other post-authoritarian contexts, and on political violence in processes of democratization.

The Specter of the Past: Reconstructing Conservative Historical Memory in South Korea

Through the case of the New Right movement in South Korea in the early 2000s, this article explores how history has become a battleground on which the Right tried to regain its political legitimacy in the postauthoritarian context. Analyzing disputes over historiography in recent decades, this article argues that conservative intellectuals—academics, journalists, and writers—play a pivotal role in constructing conservative historical narratives and building an identity for right-wing movements. By contesting what they viewed as “distorted” leftist views and promoting national pride, New Right intellectuals positioned themselves as the guardians of “liberal democracy” in the Republic of Korea. Existing studies of the Far Right pay little attention to intellectual circles and their engagement in civil society. By examining how right-wing intellectuals appropriated the past and shaped triumphalist national imagery, this study aims to better understand the dynamics of ideational contestation and knowledge production in Far Right activism.

Condensing Vestiges of Past Futures in the Post-Peripheries: Artistic Engagement with Post-Colonial and Post-Authoritarian Contexts

This article analyses the archival and historiographic turn in contemporary art that arose in response to post-authoritarian, post-communist, and post-crisis contexts. It references German philosopher Reinhart Koselleck's concept of Vergangene Zukunft (the past future), his idea of the multiplicity of historical times; Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe's notion of the time of entanglement; and Argentine-Mexican sociologist Néstor García Canclini's concept of multitemporal heterogeneity. Through an examination of recent hybridised artworks by Clemente Padín (Uruguay), Marek Sobczyk (Poland), Tamás Kaszás (Hungary), Kiluanji Kia Henda (Angola), and Michael Rakowitz (Iraq/United States), the article focuses on how these artists construct metahistorical narratives about domination and resistance from several images taken from high and popular cultures. These works respond to post-authoritarian trauma, socio-political crisis, and a general state of ideological confusion characteristic of world regions placed between major centres of power. Rather than referencing historical facts, the artists refer to popular culture, personal experiences, memories, expectations, and (unfulfilled) hopes or (uncompleted) past projects. Yet their aim in creating these artworks, mockuments, and artist's books is to construct not fictional narratives, but historical ones.

Previous Military Rule and Democratic Survival

Existing scholarship shows that a history of military rule increases the risk of democratic breakdown. However, scholars overlook the fact that military rule takes two distinct forms: collegial and personalist military rule. I argue that the two types of military rule provide different structural settings for post-authoritarian contexts. Collegial military rule hands over more cohesive and hierarchical militaries to their subsequent democracies than personalist military rule. These militaries remain organized, politicized, and powerful in emerging democracies, which increases the risk of military intervention and coups. I hypothesize that collegial military rule poses a greater threat to the survival of the ensuing democracies than personalist military rule. Empirical analysis reveals that democracies after collegial military rule are more likely to collapse than other democracies, including those emerging from personalist military rule. This shows that the previous finding on the detrimental effect of military rule is largely driven by collegial military rule.

Grammars of Schooling in the Post-Authoritarian Context: A Comparative Study of Changing Teaching Practices in Elementary Education in Czech, Polish and Portuguese Schools

This paper reports on my dissertation research, a phenomenographic analysis of how elementary teachers in three countries did or did not change their teaching practices in response to the transformations of their cultures and societies. Data come from in-depth interviews with 28 elementary teachers from Poland, the Czech Republic and Portugal. The concept of the “Grammar of Schooling” proposed by Tyack and Tobin in 1994 was used to understand and explain how outdated conceptions of the aims and functions of school can exert a durable influence on teaching practices.

Sociedad civil en América Latina: Una conversación con el Dr. Alberto J. Olvera.

Se presenta a continuación una entrevista al Profesor Alberto J. Olvera, destacado investigador de los procesos de construcción democrática en México y en Latinoamérica, realizada en la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad de Chile[1]. En esta conversación se intentó profundizar en torno a la noción de sociedad civil y sus comprensiones actuales.El entendimiento de la sociedad civil en los contextos postautoritarios ha llevado a replantear la noción en base a las mismas transformaciones de las agrupaciones sociales que la componen. Este concepto ha adquirido un lugar en la teoría política y en Latino América sirvió para dar cuenta de la organización social durante las dictaduras militares. Revisamos en esta entrevista la evolución de esta categoría analítica y su funcionamiento para interpretar la sociedad civil en los actuales regímenes democráticos.[1] Esta entrevista se desarrolló en el marco de la visita del profesor Olvera al Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad de Chile, en agosto de 2017.

Emergence of Industrial Ecosystems in Post-Authoritarian Contexts

Purpose of the article: This article analyses cluster emergence in post-authoritarian countries with immature socio-economic context by adapting the approach of industrial clusters as industrial ecosystems and analysing cluster emergence cases. Methodology/methods: Review of scientific literature, case analysis. Scientific aim: This article presents different scenarios of cluster emergence based on cases of industrial clusters in a Lithuanian context and provides solutions for cluster emergence in post-authoritarian countries. Findings: The analysis of scientific literature revealed the following solutions of cluster emergence in postauthoritarian contexts: 1) Large firm(s) acting as anchors for attracting smaller companies into cluster; 2) Cluster emergence as a means to serve the needs of large customer outside the cluster; 3) Cluster emergence via local business entrepreneurs; 4) Cluster emergence via local science representatives; 5) Cluster emergence through adapting historically formed regional knowledge and networks; 6) Government as the main agent for change. The analysis of industrial clusters emergence in Lithuania revealed four different combinations of planned/ unplanned non-equilibrium phenomena and the first explicit/inexplicit initiatives toward the emergence of selforganising industrial systems by analysing the cases of cluster emergence in Lithuanian context. These cases highlighted the importance of leaders-initiators that were local large or simply very experienced enterprises, groups of managers of small and medium sized enterprises, mediators-communication facilitators from nonbusiness enterprises. These actors helped to cope with unplanned and planned non-equilibrium phenomena. Conclusions: Since the empirical analysis concentrated only in the first stage of cluster emergence of postauthoritarian context, a further research is needed to take a deeper look at the development of industrial clusters as industrial ecosystems in post-authoritarian contexts and thus evaluate the aspects of emergence emphasised in the theoretical part of the article.

Conditions for new parties’ participation in a founding election in a democratic transition

The literature on democratic transitions considers the participation of new parties in the first pluralist election in a post-authoritarian context (founding election) as something to be taken for granted. As such, it is never questioned. Specialists in democratic transitions ignore the research on “new parties,” which is, nonetheless, essential to the understanding of the particular characteristics of a post-authoritarian situation. Using an original qualitative study on Algeria, this article proposes to bring to light the political, organizational, and legal conditions of new political parties’ participation or nonparticipation in a founding election. In particular, this research allows us to grasp the dilemmas and difficulties faced by leaders of new parties and the types of support on which they rely to engage for the first time in an electoral competition. The analytical framework stemming from this “case study” is applicable to other national case studies.

The making of industrial relations in Timor-Leste

As a new nation, Timor-Leste offers a unique case where formal industrial relations mechanisms have been developed as part of a broader project of state formation. In other words, the transformation of employment relations in the formal sector has taken place as part of regime establishment rather than regime change, as has been the case in other post-authoritarian contexts in Southeast Asia. As this first account of industrial relations in Timor-Leste demonstrates, the state has been concerned first and foremost with encouraging sustainable forms of accumulation, and the employment opportunities that accompany them, rather than with regulating labour relations. Although it has responded to pressure from international organisations to establish what could have been best-practice industrial relations institutions in the country’s tiny formal sector, these efforts have foundered as a consequence of a failure to secure employer buy-in and weak enforcement.

Internet Governance Capacity Building in Post-Authoritarian Contexts. Telecom Reform and Human Rights in Myanmar

Myanmar is undergoing profound socio-political transitions, including rapid developments of its telecommunication infrastructures and related policy frameworks that involves both infrastructural and governance challenges. By focusing on the various stages of the connectivity building plan over the first 3 years since its launch in 2012, this paper explores how Myanmar is developing its internet policy capacity building, in the framework of the broader transnational internet governance debate. In particular, this paper addresses whether and how the new national telecom infrastructure and the related governance framework has been designed and implemented in respect of digital rights, notably freedom of expression and right of privacy. By process tracing the initiatives shaping the on-going connectivity building plan, the paper discusses the role of actors involved in this process, including civil society organizations, private companies, and foreign governments; whether we are witnessing any bottom up forms of internet governance practices; opportunities and eventual threats for citizens related to the implementation this connectivity plan; and finally, it tests and proposes a novel empirically driven theoretical framework aiming at expanding our understanding on the diffusion of global internet governance norms in developing connectivity in post-authoritarian contexts.

Structural Violence, Socioeconomic Rights, and Transformative Justice

This article provides a critique of the scope of existing models of transitional justice, which focus on legal and quasi-legal remedies for a narrow set of civil and political rights violations. The article highlights the significance of structural violence in producing and reproducing violations of human rights, particularly of socioeconomic rights. There is a need to utilize a different toolkit and a different understanding of human rights from that typically employed in transitional justice in order to remedy structural violations of human rights. Focusing on a case study of land inequalities in postapartheid South Africa, the potential for transformative (rather than transitional) justice in postconflict and postauthoritarian contexts is discussed. The article outlines a definition of transformative justice, relevant actors, and relationships for such an agenda and discusses the kinds of strategies that promise a more transformative approach.

Laboratories of reform? The Europeanization and internationalization of higher education in Central and Eastern Europe

This introductory article deals with higher education (HE) transformations in Central and Eastern Europe in the context of democratization and globalization. The authors first briefly survey the wider canvas of reform since 1989, particularly probing the extent to which the countries of the region may be treated as a distinctive or a cohesive group. Diverging experiences with communism, international organizations and the European Union are highlighted, while attention is also focused on the differing degrees of marketization exhibited by academic systems across the region. Yet, notwithstanding such differences, it is clear that the countries of the region emerge as distinctive ‘laboratories of reform’, privileged sites for understanding the interplay of external and domestic influences in the reshaping of the HE sector. Drawing on the findings of our contributors, the second part of the article then turns to understanding the domestic mediation of the processes of Europeanization and internationalization, identifying a series of key factors broadly discussed in terms of structures, norms and actors. This special issue thus aims to refine our understanding of HE transformations and internationalization in a post-authoritarian context. It further contributes more generally to debates on Europeanization and policy transfer in the field.

Transitional justice, human rights and the restoration of credibility: Reconstructing Mexico’s social fabric

Mexico is entering a phase of transitional justice. This can be observed in the numerous reforms and measures that are being taken to adapt the legal system to international standards, particularly those related to human rights and criminal justice. Some examples show an increased tendency to adhere to and enforce the rule of law and human rights; to recognize the official truth of authorized misconduct that took place in the past; to punish perpetrators, and above all, to ensure victims’ rights to truth and reparation. If these tendencies continue, it could potentially lead to the restoration of public trust in the authorities and pave the way for reconciliation between society and the State. While many experiences of traditional transitional justice have taken place in post-authoritarian contexts, the convergence of the main elements used in those traditional cases lead us to suggest that these models could also apply to societies in transition, not from a particular form of government to another, but from a developing democracy into a law-abiding society. In this sense, a bottom-up approach that aims at attaining truth, reform and change will be necessary to break a cycle of impunity and develop social and government institutions that respect and enforce the rule of law and human rights.

Party Regulation in Post-Authoritarian Contexts: Southern Europe in Comparative Perspective

Despite its increasing importance, the phenomenon of party regulation has hitherto received relatively little systematic and comparative scholarly attention. The contributions to this special issue fill part of this lacuna by evaluating the various dimensions of party regulation and their impact on the parties and the party systems in post-authoritarian Southern Europe. This introduction discusses the main sources of party regulation – Constitutions, Party Laws and Party Finance Laws – and provides some preliminary conclusions on the cartelisation of party organisations and party systems.

Voicing freedom, sounding dissent: Popular music, simulation and citizenship in democratizing Albania, 1991–1997

Between 1991 and 1997, Western-style rock and popular music in postsocialist Albania came to be targeted for processes of democratization and de-communization. In this article, I examine how efforts to imaginatively locate and musically voice ‘freedom’ and ‘dissent’ through popular musicians’ performances articulated to a nominally democratic order that necessitated ‘free’ citizens. Starting from Nikolas Rose’s notion of ‘freedom as a formula of power’, I explore how particular musical performances, commentaries and received ideas about the ‘power’ of popular music in democratic and nondemocratic contexts helped to shape and promote an ideal kind of agent, a ‘free’ Citizen–Subject. In approaching ‘democratization’ as an aesthetic and cultural process rather than ‘democracy’ as an ideal political condition, I outline popular music’s significant role in the cultural construction of conceptions of liberal democracy and ‘good’ citizenship in one postauthoritarian context. The historicization of commonsense notions about the relationship between popular music and democracy, I conclude, provides a potential means to more critically examine the emergence – and normalization – of contemporary politics of citizenship pursued under the sign of ‘freedom’ in democratizing states.

Constraining consolidation: military politics and democracy in Pakistan (2007–2013)

Why do some militaries retain high authoritarian prerogatives during transitions from militarized authoritarian rule? The Pakistan military's 2007 extrication shows that an important part of the answer lies in the level of structural differentiation between the “military government” and the “military institution”. Despite sustained contentious opposition to military rule, the high level of separation between these two military dimensions of the state allowed the institutional military to delink itself from the discredited dictatorship and exit on its own terms. In the post-authoritarian context, the military has preserved its expansive prerogatives by using a variety of adaptive contestation mechanisms – including the mobilization of the media and the judiciary – that act as a continuing source of political instability and uncertainty.

Sustaining Regional Environmental NGOs in Latin America and Eastern Europe: Considering the Experience of the FARN and the REC

Democratisation presents opportunities and threats to non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Greater openness associated with democratic regimes provides opportunities for participation and influence not previously available. At the same time, increasing state capacity may threaten the continued relevance of NGOs. The article examines the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN) of Argentina and the Regional Environmental Center (REC) of eastern Europe to assess environmental support organisations in post-authoritarian contexts. The aims of the article are to identify opportunities and threats to environmental support organisations and to examine the strategies they adopt to advance their interests and achieve their goals.

A Turkish Model for the Arab Spring?

The revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests across the Arab world – known collectively as the Arab Spring – have ushered in a period of unprecedented change to the region. To what extent are non-Arab regional players relevant to this process? This essay considers two dimensions of the potential significance of Turkey to the events underway in the Arab world. Turkey has at times been invoked as a regionally appropriate example on which to model Arab democratization in a post-authoritarian context. This essay critically examines such claims, pointing out both the democratic deficits of the Turkish model and the intrinsic challenges of applying external models to indigenous democratization efforts. On the other hand, there is a second sense in which Turkey may have a role in the Arab Spring – namely, as an actor in its own right. With respect to this second dimension, this essay considers evolving Turkish policy towards the Arab world and examines the potential for Turkey to play a constructive role as a pro-democratic force in the region.