Page 166 - SCANDAL AND DEMOCRACY

Media and Civil Society 151

Facilitates
circulation of
leadership
Mobilizes the
public and civil
society Increases
Investigation Increases information accountability
for the public (voters)
Scandal Influences voter Maintains
Partisan conflict Triggers political preferences uncertainty
retaliation and reciprocal
Critical debate of political
incrimination
Breaks up contestation
collusive
pacts
Prompts new
political pacts

.
Figure 1 Political reporting in democratic consolidation

their voting preferences may change, which increases uncertainty over election out-
comes. Revelations of malfeasance can also trigger partisan vendetta and reciprocal
incrimination, further increasing transparency and breaking up collusive pacts. The
sum of these functions can strengthen accountability and help maintain the flux of
open political contestation, facilitating the circulation of leadership. The perennial
instinct to avoid accountability and uncertainty may inspire players to form new col-
lusive pacts. But the ensuing corruption is likely to fuel new media-driven scandals,
creating conditions that can set the cycle in motion all over again.
During Indonesia’s key years of democratic consolidation, 2004 to 2014, commen-
tators periodically worried that media focus on scandal and partisan conflict would
produce apathy, cynicism, or simple “politics fatigue,” detrimental to the health of
democracy. In 2013, however, a national survey revealed that, despite a widespread
perception that corruption was rife in all levels of government and business, the vast
majority of Indonesians still preferred democracy over authoritarianism. Indeed, 76
percent reported that if “parliamentary elections were held today,” they would “defi-
nitely vote.” Only 5 percent said they would not.
69
Despite valid concerns about divisive politics as a key threat to democratic con-
solidation and stability, one could argue that in any democracy, the greater threat is
not divisive politics or irresponsible journalism but collusion. When prevalent among
those with electoral, judicial, or economic power, collusion reduces public influence
over policy and paralyzes the competition necessary to democracy’s functioning. The
convergence in Indonesia among watchdog journalism, elite conflict (mediated by an
imperfect yet competitive press), and an active civil society (newly empowered by
social media) has helped break up the collusion endemic to the country’s politics.

Cross-national Comparisons

Indonesia’s comparatively successful transition has important implications for
other emerging democracies worldwide. In the quarter century since the Cold War’s
end, the once heady overthrow of authoritarian regimes has subsided into a generally
dismal mix of pseudodemocracies, dictatorships, and failing states—all indicating the
central importance of the far less dramatic process of democratic consolidation.