La forma di governo presidenziale dell’Indonesia, fra lasciti autoritari del passato e inquietudini recenti

This article analyses the presidential form of government of the Republic of Indonesia. In so doing, it focuses both on the constitutional and legislative provisions currently in force and on the cultural factors that have contributed to shaping constitutional law in Indonesia since independence. The dominant authoritarian culture of the founding years, embodied first and foremost by Soepomo’s integralism, led to the relatively ambiguous Constitution of 1945, based on a strong President and limited checks and balances. The authoritarian traits of the system were further accentuated by Sukarno’s and Suharto’s authoritarian styles of government. After Suharto’s resignation in 1998, the Constitution was significantly amended so as to redefine and limit presidential powers and the relations between the President and the legislative branch. Recent developments seem to suggest that the transition to constitutional democracy known as Reformasi has not been entirely successful so far.