Political elites and foreign policy : democratization in Indonesia

Abstract

In the investigation, the domestic sources of foreign policy analytical framework were used to analyze the dynamics of elites in foreign policy making. After analyses of the results of mostly personal interviews and historical materials, it was determined that political elites do matter in foreign policy making. However, the elite group that mattered most was still the bureaucratic elite. The non-governing political elites were influential in foreign policy making during the formulation stage but not in the implementation stage. This finding was surprising and was contrary to what has been at the onset embraced by conventional wisdom among policy analysts and policy makers in the analysis of foreign policy in democratizing countries. With democratization, it was thought at the outset that the non-governmental political elites such as Parliament, members of the civil society such as religious, academia, and media, and the military both each as a group and collectively as being not in executive power play a significant role in influencing foreign policy. Moreover, it was found that nationalist ideology, though adapted to the contemporary situation, is embraced by everyone else except by the decision makers when making foreign policy decisions. Decision makers continue to embrace realpolitik as the basis upon which to decide on foreign policy. However, ideology was instrumental during the formulation phase of foreign policy making for the four political elite groups under study.