The Politics of Hegemony: Ideological Struggle in Indonesia’s First Democratic Election (1955)
Keywords:
1955 General Election, Ideological Contestation, Political Parties, HegemonyAbstract
As a newly independent nation, Indonesia faced significant fragility in various aspects, particularly in establishing a stable state ideology. Although Pancasila had been affirmed as the foundational ideology in Sukarno’s closing speech at the session of the Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence (BPUPK), ideological contestation persisted in the years leading up to the 1955 General Election. The aspiration of several political forces to replace Pancasila or incorporate their respective ideological principles into state regulations found its most constitutional channel through the 1955 Election. This election thus became a crucial arena of ideological struggle among political parties, marked by the prominence of three major ideological streams: the Religious/Theistic foundation represented by Masyumi Party, the Nationalist foundation represented by the Indonesian National Party (PNI), and the Marxist foundation represented by the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Each party sought to establish ideological hegemony and secure popular support by promoting its vision of the state and national identity. This study conducts a historical analysis of the ideological contestation surrounding the 1955 Election by applying Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony. It examines how political parties mobilized discourse, influence, and public persuasion in their struggle to dominate the ideological landscape of post-independence Indonesia.
References
1. Adam, M., Rahman, F., Abbas, H., & Sahib, H. (2024). Corpus-based diachronic study of war metaphor in Indonesian political discourse. International Journal of Religion, 5(7), 515-523.
2. Aidit, D. N. (1955). Tentang PKI dan Perjuangan Kelas Pekerja Indonesia (Speech compilation). Jakarta: Jajasan Pembaruan.
3. Akhmar, A. M., Rahman, F., Supratman, S., Hasyim, H., & Nawir, M. (2022, April). Four Transmission Patterns Traditional Ecological Knowledge (Tek) Cerekang People. In 9th Asbam International Conference (Archeology, History, & Culture In The Nature of Malay)(ASBAM 2021) (pp. 432-446). Atlantis Press.
4. Aspinall, E., & Fealy, G. (Eds.). (2010). Soeharto’s New Order and Its Legacy: Essays in Honour of Harold Crouch. Canberra: ANU Press.
5. Bourchier, D., & Hadiz, V. R. (Eds.). (2014). Indonesian Politics and Society: A Reader. London: Routledge.
6. Budiardjo, M. (2007). Dasar-Dasar Ilmu Politik. Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama.
7. Feith, H. (2007). The Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia. Jakarta: Equinox Publishing. (Original work published 1962).
8. Friedrich, C. J. (1967). Constitutional Government and Democracy: Theory and Practice in Europe and America. Boston: Ginn and Company.
9. Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the Prison Notebooks (Q. Hoare & G. N. Smith, Eds. & Trans.). New York: International Publishers.
10. Green, M. E. (2011). Rethinking Gramsci. London: Routledge.
11. Hefner, R. W. (2018). Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia (Revised and updated ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
12. Katz, R. S., & Crotty, W. (Eds.). (2020). Handbook of Party Politics (2nd ed.). London: SAGE Publications.
13. Lev, D. S. (2009). No Concessions: The Life of Yap Thiam Hien. Jakarta: Equinox Publishing.
14. Mahdori, M., Rahman, F., Faisal, R., Aditya, T. P. M., Sosrohadi, S., & Sachiya, F. (2025). Revealing aspect of culture through literature: Learning from Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana. International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology, 10(3), 1211-1216.
15. Mair, P. (2013). Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy. London: Verso.
16. Mesquita, Y. A., Rahman, F., & Budimawan. (2025). Organizational culture transformation towards inclusive development in Timor Leste: Dynamics of equalizing social and cultural development. International Journal of Current Science Research and Review, 8(09), 4690–4695.
17. Mietzner, M. (2009). Military Politics, Islam, and the State in Indonesia: From Turbulent Transition to Democratic Consolidation. Singapore: ISEAS.
18. Mortimer, R. (2011). Indonesian Communism under Sukarno: Ideology and Politics, 1959–1965. Jakarta: Equinox Publishing.
19. Neumann, S. (1956). Modern Political Parties: Approaches to Comparative Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
20. Pertiwi, L. M. A., Rahman, F., & Hasyim, M. (2024). Types of defamation speech acts on YouTube: A forensic linguistics study. Internastional Journal of Religion, 5(10), 4039-4047.
21. Pratiwi, N. I., Sosrohadi, S., Rahman, F., Dalyan, M., Andini, C., & Muliyani, M. (2026). The use of code-mixing by edu-influencers in social media: A communication strategy in sociolinguistic perspective. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science, 10(1), 1034–1042.
22. Rahman, F., Akhmar, A. M., Hasyim, M., Dalyan, M., & Rahman, F. F. (2022). The Virtue In Core Values of Buginese Culture: A Worldview from Philosophical, Religious, and Moral Perspectives. Al-Qalam, 28(2), 197-207.
23. Rahman, F., & Weda, S. (2019). Linguistic deviation and the rhetoric figures in Shakespeare’s selected plays. XLinguage" European Scientific Language Journal", 12(1), 37-52.
24. Sartori, G. (1976). Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
25. Sujoko, A., Rahmiati, D., & Rahman, F. (2023). The role of radio as the public sphere for public political education in the digital era: Challenges and pitfalls. Cogent Social Sciences, 9(1), 2239627.
26. Thahara, Y., Gunawan, F., Samad, I. A., Weda, S., & Rahman, F. (2019). Prabowo’s anger during 212 reunion: appraisal system of CNN Indonesia news text. International Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics (IJLLL), 5(1), 217-224.
27. Thomas, P. D. (2009). The Gramscian Moment: Philosophy, Hegemony and Marxism. Leiden: Brill.
28. Ware, A. (2021). Political Parties and Party Systems (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
