No Populism, No Democracy: The Analysis of Indonesia 2024 Presidential Election

Populism did not rise in the 2024 Indonesian presidential election, and the election failed to function as a political arena in which “the people” meaningfully shaped politics. Instead, it reflected growing political apathy and permissiveness toward attacks on democratic values, produced by systematic state intervention, from manipulation of presidential candidates to repeated violations of neutrality. This situation contradicts democratic prerequisites of a strong state and a strong people and reveals a state working to weaken popular agency. Populism is understood as a process of constituting “the people,” and democracy as the empty place of power. Popular involvement in determining government has been increasingly distanced, while legitimacy is constructed to preserve the status quo through buzzers, influencers, and partisan civil society. These legitimacy projects mask social antagonism. The 2024 election thus contributes to the weakening of Indonesian democracy, pluralism, and social cohesion, echoing democratic crises marked by strong states and weak peoples.