ABSTRACT

While democratization is regularly associated with elite renewal, established elites often succeed in maintaining their dominance after the fall of the authoritarian regime that fostered them. This constitutes a relatively understudied challenge facing democratization processes: when and how do democratic reforms succeed in fostering the emergence of new elites? This paper addresses this question through a study of village head elections in three rural districts around Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Comparing older studies of village head elections with ten in-depth studies of recent village head elections as well as assessments of the backgrounds of eighty village heads (kepala desa), this paper shows that a remarkable change has taken place. Whereas up to ten years ago many villages were still ruled by leaders from established families with a quasi-hereditary grip on power, in recent years such leaders are rapidly being replaced by village heads with more modest family backgrounds and a different style of leadership. This important change has resulted from a combination of democratic reforms, the diversification of rural economies, and the particularly competitive character of village head elections. Elite renewal is possible when open and information-dense elections coincide with a process of economic diversification undercutting the economic dominance of established elites.

摘要

虽然民主化通常与精英更新有关，但是，建立起来的精英通常会在养育他们的专制政权垮台后成功地保持其统治地位。这构成了民主化进程所面临的相对被忽视的挑战：民主改革何时以及如何成功地促进新精英的出现？本文通过对印度尼西亚日惹周围三个农村地区的村长选举进行研究，从而解决了这个问题。比较旧的村长选举研究与最近的十个村长选举深入研究，以及对八十个村长选举背景的评估（kepala desa），本文表明发生了显着变化。直到十年前，许多村庄仍然由来自成熟家庭的领导人统治，并拥有准世袭权力，但近年来，这种领导者正迅速被家庭背景和领导风格不同的村长取代。这项重要的变化是民主改革，农村经济多样化以及村长选举特别具有竞争力的综合结果。当公开和信息密集的选举与经济多元化进程同时出现，削弱了已建立精英的经济主导地位时，就可能进行精英更新。