Democratization and the Diffusion of Shari'a Law: Comparative Insights from Indonesia

Buehler, Michael; Muhtada, Dani

Abstract

The democratization of politics has been accompanied by a rise of Islamic laws in many Muslim-majority countries. Despite a growing interest in the phenomenon, the Islamization of politics in democratizing Muslim-majority countries is rarely understood as a process that unfolds across space and time. Based on an original dataset established during years of field research in Indonesia, this article analyzes the spread of shari’a regulations across the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy since 1998. The article shows that shari’a regulations in Indonesia diffused unevenly across space and time. Explanations put forward in the literature on the diffusion of morality policies in other countries such as geographic proximity, institutions, intergovernmental relations and economic conditions did not explain the patterns in the diffusion of shari’a regulations in Indonesia well. Instead, shari’a regulations in Indonesia were most likely to spread across jurisdictions where local Islamist groups situated outside the party system had an established presence. In short, the Islamization of politics was highly contingent on local conditions. Future research will need to pay more attention to local Islamist activists and networks situated outside formal politics as potential causes for the diffusion of shari’a law in democratizing Muslim-majority countries.

Citation

Buehler, M., & Muhtada, D. (2016). Democratization and the Diffusion of Shari'a Law: Comparative Insights from Indonesia. South East Asia Research, 24(2), 261-282. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967828X16649311

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 13, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Oct 18, 2018
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Apr 14, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 14, 2016
• Journal: South East Asia Research
• Print ISSN: 0967-828X
• Electronic ISSN: 2043-6874
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 261-282
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0967828X16649311
• Keywords: Democratization, Indonesia, Islamic law, Islamization, policy diffusion, shari’a