Pergeseran Orientasi Politik Mantan Aktivis Pro-demokrasi di Bali: Dari Idealis ke Pragmatis

Abstract

This article discusses the change in the political orientation of former pro-democracy activists in Bali after more than 20 years of the reformation. The change in their orientation from idealistic to pragmatic is allegedly one of the catalysts for the decline of democracy. This study aims to determine the causes of the change in the political orientation of former pro-democracy activists in Bali and to make a categorization from the political orientation of these former activists. The theory used as the analytical tool is the rational choice theory from Barbara Geddes. This research uses qualitative methods with a case studies approach. There are two important findings in this study: (1) The change in political orientation from idealistic to pragmatic is caused by the rational choices made by former pro-democracy activists by calculating their career and needs factors. (2) If career motives are more prominent than transactional and partisanship motives, then former pro-democracy activists tend to fill the positions in non-political party institutions. On the contrary, if the partisan motive is dominant in a former activist, then they tend to fill the position in a political party.