Democracy and Islam in Indonesia

In 1998, Indonesia's military government collapsed, creating a crisis that many believed would derail its democratic transition. Yet the world's most populous Muslim country continues to receive high marks from democracy-ranking organizations. In this volume, political scientists, religious scholars, legal theorists, and anthropologists examine Indonesia's transition compared to Chile, Spain, India, and potentially Tunisia, and democratic failures in Yugoslavia, Egypt, and Iran. Chapters explore religion and politics and Muslims' support for democracy before change.

... by government (sometimes by telephone) or purchased by litigants (often with
court clerks acting as brokers).3 The result was a dysfunctional legal system that
consistently failed citizens but served the Suharto government well, providing
almost complete legal impunity for many state actors, in particular military
perpetrators of human rights abuses.4 Daniel Lev's damning account of the
decrepitude of the Indonesian legal system by the end of the Orde Baru (New
Order) suggests the ...