The Democratic Instinct in the 21st Century

Issue Date July 2010
Volume 21
Issue 3
Page Numbers 5-10
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Democratization is never easy, smooth, or linear, but as Indonesia’s experience in building a multiparty and multiethnic democracy shows, it can succeed even under difficult and initially unpromising conditions.

About the Author

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was elected in 2009 to his second term as president of the Republic of Indonesia. The text that follows is adapted from the keynote address that he delivered in Jakarta on 12 April 2010 at the sixth biennial Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy.

View all work by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Further Reading

Volume 25, Issue 2

How Indonesia Won a Constitution

A review of Constitutional Change and Democracy in Indonesia by Donald L. Horowitz.

Volume 16, Issue 2

Challenge and Change in East Asia: Facing the Perils of Presidentialism

Juan Linz’s 1990 critique of presidentialism in these pages was based largely on the Latin American experience. In the last few years, however, four new Asian democracies have encountered presidential…

Volume 30, Issue 4

Southeast Asia’s Troubling Elections: Nondemocratic Pluralism in Indonesia

For the second straight time, voters rejected a presidential candidate with ties to undemocratic Islamist forces, but victorious incumbent Joko Widodo felt compelled to tone down his support for liberalism.