Recent Development of Civil Society In Bali Post New Order Era

This research attempts to describe the development of civil society. Political science tends to put the important role of civil society as one of the benchmarks of the development of democracy in Indonesia. Civil society has become a widely developed concept in describing the relationship between the state and society. In a global context, the emergence of civil society was associated with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, an episode that marked democratization in various parts of the world. In Indonesia, this transition period was marked after the collapse of Suharto's New Order, accompanied by the rapid development of civil society. Even so, there has not been much research on the development of civil society in the local realm. This research seeks to fill the void associated with the development of civil society and democracy at the local level, by focusing on the latest development of civil society in Bali. Nordholt (2007) illustrates the dilemma of Bali's condition, where free markets on the one hand, and exclusive cultural identities on the other, are not compatible. Quoting Degung Santikarma, the Balinese experience shows that authenticity is a valuable new commodity in the industrial era of cultural capitalism today. Taking a position that is relatively different from Nordholt, this research is closer to Jim Schiller's study of civil society in Jepara, Central Java. Schiller (2007) points out that civil society is the main locus that drives local government to be more inclusive, a picture of the situation that shows the stretching of civil society in Bali. In this study, data collection was done by observation and interviews. Supporting data is collected by searching literature, documents, archives and related news. The results will be analysed to describe the current conditions of civil society in Bali.