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This paper analyzes how citizens of two countries that underwent democratization during the past twenty years-Russia and Indonesia-understand "democracy." Evaluating both large-N public opinion surveys and open- and closed-ended questions from interviews with a quota sample of the population in Russia and Indonesia, this paper provides a comprehensive picture of popular conceptualizations of democracy in these two distinct societies. I find that while both Russians and Indonesians view democracy through the lens of freedom, Russians have expressed their freedom by not participating in politics, while Indonesians have increased their engagement in contentious activities. These differences may help explain Russians' general indifference to Russia's authoritarian backsliding and low levels of political participation, as well as Indonesians' unusually high levels of political activism. This paper further finds that measures of popular understandings of "democracy" depend heavily on how the question is worded and the scope of possible responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a model of social movement emergence and political change that is not critically dependent on either active elite support or limited rationality. Social movements involve, rather, strategic interactions among movement actors as they are impacted by exogenous shocks---such as those experienced during a financial crisis---and moderated by the social relationship effects that exist in participating groups. We introduce two separate mechanisms involved in driving social change: Social movement emergence premised on inter-group formation under a political entrepreneur, and intra-group dynamics based on a system of endogenous contract enforcement. Our framework is also flexible enough to incorporate multiple contracting mechanisms, informational imperfections, as well as potential interactions with elites.We then consider the historical validity of the model with case studies of Indonesia during the crisis and conflict in the Congo. These studies suggest that features that we highlight in our model, such as strategic interaction among movement actors, the importance of exogenous shocks, as well as the existence of political entrepreneurs, were both necessary and important in the genesis and perpetuation of these social movements. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the study on the factors that influence choices of voters in the political party politics in Indonesia. It states that regional and ethnic difference have significant impact on the voting behavior of voters. It notes that the social changes in the country caused by rapid economic development are less important on voting behavior than traditional and historical factors. It mentions that structure of political cleavage can change with social changes and strategic actions.