Dialogic-Critical Education as a Solution to Mitigate the Decay of Democracy in the Process of Electing Council Members in Indonesia

The Indonesian political civilization has to construct a quality and lasting democratic system through dialogic-critical education. This research is based on the growth of elite dominance in democracy, clientelism in politics, and political parties’ challenges in solidifying people’s power. This study examines how dialogical-critical educational concepts, the legislative council, and general election organizers might mitigate Indonesia’s erosion of democracy. The method used is a mixed-method approach, and data were taken from 265 respondents through questionnaires, field observations, and focus group discussions (FGDs). The researchers used the multistage cluster random sampling technique to select 265 respondents. The researchers reviewed political party policy documents, analyzed political party ideology, explored the struggles of elected regency legislative councils, examined the role of election organizers, and analyzed voter characteristics through field observation, FGDs, and questionnaire distribution. The results of this study reveal that the decay of the democratic system in Indonesia can be addressed through the mutual support of the notion of critical, plural, inclusive, and dialogical pedagogy. This study’s findings recommend that the role of political parties be revitalized, the functioning of regency legislative councils and election organizers be enhanced, and the capabilities of the constituents be strengthened to mitigate the erosion of the political system in Indonesia.