| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
There is a prevailing assumption amongst scholars and observers of Indonesian politics that there is a close link between religious identity and political identity. How valid is this socio-cultural identity model in explaining the party affiliation and political allegiance of increasingly pious Muslim youth to a political organization in the context of democratic consolidation? In particular, how valid is this assumption with consideration to contemporary Indonesian politics? This article engages this debate through a careful analysis of the member recruitment and mobilization of the most successful religious-based Islamist organization in post-authoritarian Indonesia, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). The article combines two strands of social movement theory, resource mobilization and opportunity structures, to argue that the PKS's relative success in recruiting committed Muslim youth is explained by two interrelated factors: (1) merit-based cadre recruitment and promotion, which offers young, ambitious and religiously conscious Muslim youth fair and institutionalized political career opportunities and thus incentives to commit themselves to the party's collective interests; and (2) the timing of organizational expansion that coincided with a rapid increase of state office - both executive and legislative - at the sub-national levels as a result of localized democratic elections.
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