Women’s Strategy in Political Dynasty

This article examines the political dynasties in Indonesia’s post-reform era focusing on women’s role in regional elections. This research is designed in such a way that it will benefit Muslim women who are politically involved in Indonesia’s democratic system. This study uses a descriptive social politics by observing the political dynasty’s phenomena in Indonesia during the post-reform era. The data was collected through in-depth interviews, observation, and documents all of which were then analyzed within a phenomenology approach. The study found that (1) Women or wives who replace their husbands as the heads of region made the best use of their husbands’ charismatic image and social assets; (2) Women who got elected as the successors of their husbands perform as if they are ‘puppets’ of their husbands in running the government; (3) the factors which support the victory of the wives in regional elections include the use of their husbands’ power when they are the heads of region by undertaking hidden campaigns, and the paternalistic social environments wherein the rate of rational voters is still low.