Governing from Civil Society: Muhammadiyah, Civic Islam, and Public Policy in Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32506/dbzh4k09Keywords:
Muhammadiyah, civic Islam, civil society, public policy, IndonesiaAbstract
This article examines Muhammadiyah's role in Indonesian public policy. It employs qualitative historical-institutional document analysis, not a systematic literature review, and limits its sources to materials published by 2022. The analysis integrates organizational decisions, Constitutional Court records, and scholarship on civil society, democracy, welfare, health, and disaster governance. The findings identify five interconnected modes of policy influence: institutional service provision, production of religious and professional knowledge, public agenda setting, coalition-based advocacy, and constitutional litigation. Muhammadiyah's schools, hospitals, philanthropic bodies, and disaster institutions make it a policy implementer as well as an external critic of the state. Its Khittah, anti-corruption jurisprudence, tobacco-control initiatives, pandemic response, and constitutional jihad translate religious commitments into civic claims concerning welfare, accountability, and public resources. However, influence remains uneven and should not be equated with democratic virtue or measurable policy impact. Organizational compromise, elite access, internal ideological diversity, fragmented local capacity, and dependence on state regulation constrain its autonomy. Muhammadiyah is therefore best understood as a hybrid civic institution that governs with, through, and sometimes against the state.
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