Meritokrasi, Populisme Kanan, dan Revitalisasi Diskursus Publik: Perspektif Filosofis Michael Sandel

Petrus Tan

Abstract


This article aims to elaborate the phenomenon of right-wing populism based on the thought of Michael Sandel on the tyranny of meritocracy. Various previous literatures understand right-wing populism as an anti-pluralism and anti-globalization movement. However, these analyses fail to see that meritocracy has fueled the anger of working class and the losers as expressed in the populist movement. This study uses literature review and critical analysis methods. This study indicates that: 1) Meritocracy is a certain moral belief in individual success that justifies inequality as fair based on the basic principles of liberalism; 2) There are five key theses on meritocracy that trigger right-wing populism, namely: a person's fate is determined by individual success; everyone is responsible for their life; everyone can rise as long as they work hard; social inequality is a problem of person's income which is linear with their hard work; and education is a solution of social inequality; 3) Sandel’s criticism on meritocracy can be an alternative perspective to analyze populism in Indonesia. 4) The challenge of right-wing populism can be answered by revitalizing public discourse. This study concludes that meritocracy is a trigger for the right-wing populism in various democratic countries, including Indonesia.

Abstrak

Artikel ini bertujuan menganalisis fenomena populisme kanan berdasarkan pemikiran Michael Sandel tentang tirani meritokrasi. Berbagai literatur sebelumnya memahami populisme kanan sebagai gerakan anti-pluralisme dan anti-globalisasi. Namun, analisis-analisis tersebut gagal memahami bahwa meritokrasi telah memicu kemarahan kelas pekerja dan para pecundang yang diekspresikan dalam gerakan populis. Studi ini memakai metode review literatur dan analisis kritis. Studi ini menemukan bahwa: 1) Meritokrasi adalah keyakinan moral tertentu terhadap prestasi individu yang membenarkan ketimpangan sosial sebagai hal yang fair berdasarkan prinsip-prinsip liberalisme; 2) Terdapat lima tesis kunci meritokrasi yaitu: nasib seseorang ditentukan prestasi individu; setiap orang bertanggung jawab atas hidupnya; setiap orang bisa bangkit asalkan bekerja keras; ketimpangan sosial adalah masalah besar-kecilnya penghasilan seseorang yang linear dengan kerja kerasnya; dan pendidikan adalah solusi ketimpangan sosial; 3) Pandangan Sandel dapat menjadi perspektif alternatif untuk membaca populisme di Indonesia. 4) Tantangan populisme kanan dapat dijawab melalui revitalisasi diskursus publik. Studi ini menyimpulkan bahwa meritokrasi merupakan pemicu populisme kanan di berbagai negara demokrasi, termasuk Indonesia.


 


Keywords


Meritocracy; Right-Wing Populism; Liberalism; Revitalization of Public Discourse; Meritokrasi; Populisme Kanan; Liberalisme; Revitalisasi Wacana Publik.

References


Agustin, Oscar Garcia. Left-Wing Populism, The Politics of the People. UK: Emerald Publishing, 2020.

Anderson, Ben and Anna Secor. “Propositions on right-wing populism: Available, excessive, optimistic.” Political Geography 96 (2022): 1-10.

Bergh, Andreas and A.Karna. “Globalization and Populism in Europe.” Public Choice 189, no. 51 (2021): 51-70.

Colantone, I., dan Stanig, P., “The trade origins of economic nationalism: Import competition and voting behavior in Western Europe.” American Journal of Political Science 62, no. 4 (2018): 940-55.

Coman, J. “Michael Sandel: The Populist Blacklash has been a revolt against the tyranny of merit.”https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/06/michael-sandel-the populistbacklash-has-been-a-revolt-against-the-tyranny-of-merit (6 September 2023).

D. Autor, Dorn, D., Hanson, G., & Majlesi, K. “Importing political polarization? The electoral consequences of rising trade exposure.” American Economic Review 110, no. 10 (2020): 3135-50.

Diningrat, Rendy A. “Mengapa Anak dari Keluarga Miskin Cenderung akan Tetap Miskin ketika Dewasa: Penjelasan Temuan Riset SMERU.” The Conversation, 3 Desember 2019. https://theconversation.com/mengapaanak-dari-keluarga-miskin-cenderung-akantetap-miskin-ketika-dewasa-penjelasan-temuan-riset.

Djani, Luky. “Persenyawaan Politik Identitas dan Populisme.” Prisma 36, no. 1 (2012): 10-18.

Guisan, Catherine. “Right-Wing Populism and the European Parliament’s Agonistic Politics.” Populism 5, no. 1 (2022): 48-71.

Haak, Donovan and Dries Deweer. “Discontent with Procedural and Meritocratic Democracy.” Populism 5, no. 1 (2022): 21-47.

Hadiz, Vedi R. Islamic Populism in Indonesia and The Middle East. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Hadiz, Vedi R. dan Richard Robison. “Competing Populism in Post-authoritarian Indonesia.” International Political Science Review 38, no. 4 (2017): 488-502.

Halterman, Andrew, Nicholas Halterman dan Jill Irvine. “How Right Wing is Right Wing Populism?” Political Science 22 (2018), 51-65.

Hamid, Usman. “Merosotnya Ruang Publik untuk Kritik dan Protes.” Demokrasi Tanpa Demos diedit oleh Wijayanto, et al. Jakarta: LP3ES, 2021.

Hanan, Djayadi. “Identity Politics in the 2019 Indonesian General Elections: Its Significances and Limitation.” Jurnal Wacana Politik 5, no. 1 (2020): 1-16.

Hara, Abubakar Eby. “Populism in Indonesia and its Threats to Democracy.” Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Social and Political Sciences (ICSPS 2017). 106-111. Dordrecht: Atlantis Press, 2018.

Hardiman, F. Budi. “Kebangkitan Populisme Kanan dalam Negara Hukum Demokratis.” Prisma 36, no.(2017), 3-9.

Laclau, E. Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory. London: NLB, 1977,

Levitsky, Steven dan Daniel Ziblatt. How Democracy Die. UK: Penguin Books, 2018.

Lutjen, Torben. “The anti-authoritarian revolt: Right-wing populism as self-empowerment?” European Journal of Social Theory 25, no. 1 (2022): 75-93.

Madung, Otto. “Krisis Demokrasi dan Tirani Meritokrasi Menurut Michael Sandel.” Jurnal Ledalero 9, no. 2 (2020): 127-144.

Madung, Otto., and A. Y. Mai. “Populism, Radical Democracy, and the Indonesian Process of Democratization.” Politika 13, no. 1 (2021): 131-148.

Mietzner, Marcus. “Fighting Illiberalism with Illiberalism, Islamist Populism and Democratic Deconsolidation in Indonesia.” Pasific Affairs 91, no. 2 (Juni 2018): 261-282.

Mouffe, C. Populisme Kiri diterjemhakan oleh Melfin Zaenuri. Yogyakarta: Antinomi, 2018.

Mudde, C., dan Cristobal Rovira Kaltwasser. Populism A Very Schort Introduction. USA: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Mudhoffir, et al. “Populisme Islam dan Tantangan Demokrasi di Indonesia.” Prisma 36 (2017): 48-59.

Osnos, E. “China’s Encounter with Michael Sandel.” dalam Encountering China. Michael Sandel and Chinese Philosophy, diedit oleh M. Sandel dan Paul J. D’Ambrosio, vii - xv. Massachusets: Harvard University Press, 2018.

Pabst, Adrian. “On the Convergence of Liberalism and Populism.” Telos 2018, no. 185 (2018), 201-204.

Panizza, Fransisco. “Introduction: Populism and the Mirror of Democracy.” dalam Populism and the Mirror of Democracy, diedit oleh Fransisco Panizza, 1 - 31. London: Verso, 2005.

Rakhmani, I., and M.S.Saraswati. “Authoritarian Populism in Indonesia: The Role of the Political Campaign Industry in Engineering Consent and Coercion.” Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 40, no. 3 (2021): 436-460.

Rawls, J. A Theory of Justice. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2009.

Rizkimawati, Dinda dan Indra Kusumawardhana. “State and Right-Wing Populism: Analysis on the Kemenko Polhukam RI Persuasion Approach in Responding the Wave of “212” Movement.” Journal of Islamic World and Politics 5, no.1 (2021): 14-34.

Rodrik, Dani. “Why Does Globalization Fuel Populism? Economics, Culture, and the Rise of Right-Wing Populism.” Annual Reviews 13 (2021): 133-170.

Rosenbaum, Stuart. Race, Justice and American Intellectual Traditions. USA: Palgrave Pivot, 2018.

Sandel, Michael. The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? USA: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020.

Sandel, Michael. “Populism, Liberalism and Democracy.” Philosophy and Social Criticism, Vol. 44(4) (2018): 353-359.

Sandel, Michael. Public Philosophy: Essay on Morality in Politics. Massacusets: Harvard University Press, 2005.

Sandel, Michael. Democracy’s Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy. Massachusets: Harvard University Press, 1996.

Sandel, Michael. Liberalism and The Limit of Justice. USA: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Sandel, Michael. “The Procedural Republic and The Unencumbered Self.” Political Theory 12, no. 1 (1984): 81-96.

Sandel, Michael. “How to Save Democracy,” New Statesman, 18-24 May 2018, 32-34.

Sandel, Michael. “What Liberals Get Wrong about Work.” The Atlantic, 2 September 2020. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/contributive-justice-anddignity-work/615919/ (diakses 21 Desember 2020).

Sunardi. “Islamic Populism: Asymmetrical, Multi-Class Coalition-Based Social Mobilization.” Jurnal Politik 4, no. 2 (Februari 2019): 329-338.

Swank, Duane dan Hans-Georg Betz. “Globalization, the Welfare State, and Right Wing Populism in Western Europe,” Socio Economic Review 1, no. 2 (2003): 215-245.

The Decision Lab. “Michael Sandel, The Celebrity Political Philosopher.” https://thedecisionlab.com/thinkers/philosophy/michael-sandel/ (20 September 2023).

Winberg, Oscar. “Insult Politics: Donald Trump, Right-Wing Populism, and Incendiary Language.” European Journal of American Studies 12, no. 2 (2017): 1-16.

Young, M. The Rise of Meritocracy 1870-2033, An Essay on Education and Equality. London: Penguin Books, 1961.

Zizek, Slavoj. Pan(dem)ic Covid-19 Shakes the World. New York & London: OR Books, 2020.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/snf.v2i1.8484

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

    

E-ISSN: (Validity Starting Volume 1 No. 2, September 2023) 3047-0714

P-ISSN: (Validity Starting Volume 1 No. 2, September 2023) 3047-1451

Kaliurang St No.KM, RW.7, Joho, Condongcatur, Depok, Sleman Regency, Special Region of Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia

Flag Counter

Proceedings of The National Conference on Indonesian Philosophy and Theology is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0