Marcus Mietzner

Marcus Mietzner is Associate Professor at the Department of Political and Social Change, Coral Bell School of Asia and the Pacific, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University. He has published widely on Indonesian politics in journals such as Democratization, Journal of Democracy, International Political Science Review, Governance and Journal of Contemporary Asia.

COVID-19 and Democratic Regression in Indonesia: Causes and Effects

This talk discusses the impact of democratic decline on Indonesia's COVID-19 response, but also assesses the extent to which the pandemic has the potential to cause further damage to the country's democratic substance. It argues that rather than recording a major deterioration of democratic quality during the pandemic, Indonesia saw the continuation of democratic erosion trends that started long before the pandemic, and that consequently influenced the government's crisis response.