The Rise of Political Dynasty and the Candidate Selection Process within the Party: Evidence from Indonesia
Keywords:
Political dynasty, Candidate selection, Process, Party institutionalization, Medan local electionAbstract
The emergence of political dynasties is one of the most pressing problems faced by new democracies in Asia, such as Indonesia. This is illustrated by the increasing number of politicians with dynastic backgrounds participating and being elected in elections to hold positions in the executive and legislative institutions. The number of regional head candidates in Indonesia affiliated with political dynasties increased rapidly from 52 in 2015 to 159 in 2020. Several causes that are considered drivers of the emergence of political dynasties are political centralization, candidacy that tends to be closed, regeneration within the party that does not run optimally, weak institutionalization of political parties, and the absence of free media. However, none of the existing literature explains the emergence of political dynasties through an investigation of the candidate selection process that takes place within the party. This article fills that gap, by presenting the candidate selection process that occurred when the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle nominated Bobby Nasution, son-in-law of President Joko Widodo, as mayor of Medan in 2020. The finding of this article is that the president's strong influence can intervene in the process that takes place within political parties, causing the candidate selection process to be very undemocratic. This is a problem of political parties in Indonesia that tend to be pragmatic in providing recommendations for regional head candidates.
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