A Price for Democracy? Religious Legislation and Religious Discrimination in Post-Soeharto Indonesia. Issue 1 (2nd January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sumaktoyo, Nathanael Gratias
• Is Part Of: Bulletin of Indonesian economic studies. Volume 56:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 23
• Page End: 42
• Publication Date: 2020-01-02
• Subjects: religious freedom -- Islam and democracy -- state–religion separation; D73 -- D74 -- D91 -- Y80; Indonesia -- Economic conditions -- Periodicals; 330.9598
• DOI: 10.1080/00074918.2019.1661354
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0007-4918

Abstract

Abstract : Various studies have expressed concerns about the decline of religious freedom in Indonesia. These studies suffer from three limitations. First, they inadequately differentiate between various aspects of state–religion relations. Second, they are largely inward looking, overlooking how Indonesia compares with other countries in the world, especially other Muslim countries. Third, they do not explicitly test whether this decline in religious freedom was triggered by the downfall of Soeharto and the more open political and social space that ensued. Applying a synthetic control method to a global data set, the present study shows that Indonesia's level of state discrimination against religious minorities has not changed much since 1998. The country's levels of social discrimination and religious legislation, on the other hand, have increased significantly. This suggests that efforts to improve religious freedom in Indonesia should focus on tackling the proliferation of religious bylaws and discrimination by social groups.