International Relations of the Asia-Pacific Advance Access originally published online on July 31, 2009
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 2009 9(3):373-402; doi:10.1093/irap/lcp010
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Deepening ASEAN cooperation through democratization? The Indonesian legislature and foreign policymaking
Keio University, Faculty of Law, 2-15-45 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Email: juergen.rueland{at}politik.uni-freiburg.de
Recent reforms of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are viewed by liberal institutionalists and constructivists as triggering a fundamental transformation of the ASEAN Way, the embodiment of the association's established, strictly intergovernmental cooperation norms. This article questions such reasoning, if it is causally linked to expectations of a greater deepening of ASEAN cooperation. Based on recent rationalist theorizing and Snyder's ‘nationalist elite persuasion’ hypothesis, the article argues that the causal relationships between democracy and regional integration are more complex than assumed in Eurocentric integration theories. By examining foreign policy debates in the Indonesian legislature, the article shows that foreign policymaking has become much more democratic and pluralistic since the end of President Suharto's New Order regime. However, as case studies of foreign policy issues suggest, democratic norms have often been localized by a neo-nationalist agenda that hamstrings the deepening of regional integration.
Received for publication December 17, 2008. Accepted for publication July 2, 2009.