Identity Political Strengthening Ideology for Increasing Vote Gains in General Elections in Indonesia
Puguh Wiji Pamungkas

Universitas Merdeka Malang

Abstract

Identity politics is a threat to democracy, including in Indonesia. At the same time, in Indonesia the number of Muslim voters reached 80%. Muslim voters are the majority group and are vulnerable to identity politics, given their character that is easily influenced to follow certain behaviors. This research has an urgency to reveal how big the threat of identity politics is to Muslim voters, especially in Malang Regency, East Java. The choice of Malang Regency, East Java as the object of research because in that location the majority of the population is traditional Muslims, and Muslim educational institutions, such as Islamic boarding schools and Muslim schools are the most numerous in East Java. This research uses a qualitative analytical approach, to reveal the phenomenon of identity politics among Muslim voters carried out by political parties. From the research that has been done, it is revealed that identity politics is strengthening among Muslim voters driven by three factors, political elites, mass media, and institutional. This is relevant to the theory put forward by Theresia Kuhn. However, there are other factors that strengthen identity politics, which are not put forward by Kuhn, namely ideological factors. The ideology of the party is the same as the ideology of the majority of voters. This is a novelty in this study, from Kuhn^s research and other studies.

Keywords: Muslim voters- identity politics in Indonesia- political parties.

Topic: Democracy, Local Politics and Protecting Natural Resources