Illiberal peace-building in hybrid political orders: managing violence during Indonesia’s contested political transition

The paper presents a new interpretation of peace-building in contested transitional states. The peace-building literature is dominated by analysis of international liberal processes and policies, their costs and benefits. To understand non-liberal processes of peace-building, especially those conducted by national governments, new concepts have emerged. The paper employs the concept of ‘hybrid political orders’ to analyse the logic of illiberal peace-building processes in transitional states. In contrast to a normative liberal analysis, this approach interprets violent democratising states as they are, rather than as they ought to be. It also assesses the role that illiberal political institutions, such as those of neo-patrimonialism, can play in reducing violence. In the light of overall government policy and two comparative sub-national cases taken from the Indonesian transition, the paper discusses how illiberal peace-building reduced violence during political transition, and when and why it failed. The discussion has relevance for wider understanding of the comparative politics of democratisation and peace-building in contested states.