The central theme of this master thesis is how in Indonesia the relationship between the idea of democracy and the resulting political change that can be drawn from the 1900 to 1960. By means of a...Show moreThe central theme of this master thesis is how in Indonesia the relationship between the idea of democracy and the resulting political change that can be drawn from the 1900 to 1960. By means of a definition of constitutional democracy and the models of “constitutive localization” of Amitav Acharya (2009), this research has been carried out. This showed that with constitutive localization, the idea of democracy generates indigenous political change. It is necessary to take into account how particular local actors, or “idea entrepreneurs”, adopt foreign ideas to bring about political change. Their role is viewed as an effort to reconstruct foreign ideas to ensure the ideas fit with their cognitive priors and identities, which is identified as “congruence building”. Thus, a dynamic congruence building process, or “localization”, provides opportunity for foreign ideas, which may not initially cohere with local belief and practices, to be incorporated into the local norms. In Indonesian case, “Indonesian-Javanese paradigm” serves as the platform to appropriate and adapted the idea of democracy to local conditions. This analysis can serve as a diagnostic tool to help policy makers understand where and how consolidation of democratic forces could be harmonized in Indonesia. Through gaining a better understanding of the agency role of idea entrepreneur in spreading and defending democracy, this study will hopefully become an interesting case for study of political change in world politics.Show less
Climate change is becoming an increasingly important topic on the international stage and is one of today’s top priorities on the global agenda. Indonesia is of importance in any discussion about...Show moreClimate change is becoming an increasingly important topic on the international stage and is one of today’s top priorities on the global agenda. Indonesia is of importance in any discussion about climate change because of two reasons: (1) Indonesia is a country extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and (2) Indonesia contributes significantly to the problems of climate change. Therefore, it is perhaps not surprising that the Indonesian government has played an important role in the international debate on climate change. This thesis analyzes Indonesia’s contribution in the movement towards international cooperation to combat climate change.Show less
