D. Alienation (Marx)
While cognitive dissonance explains the individual rationalizations that sustain transactional politics, alienation theory addresses the broader societal consequences of these micro-level behaviors. Karl Marx (1844/1970) described alienation as the estrangement of individuals from the products of their labor, from fellow humans, and ultimately from their own human potential. Transposed to the political sphere, alienation emerges when citizens feel disconnected from the democratic process and powerless to influence outcomes, reducing political participation to a mechanical or transactional act.
In Indonesia, persistent vote buying and legislative arrogance create fertile ground for political alienation. Citizens observe that elected officials routinely fail to fulfill campaign promises, while repeated monetary incentives condition them to treat voting as an economic transaction rather than a civic duty. Over time, this fosters a sense of powerlessness and estrangement: citizens no longer see themselves as active shapers of political reality but as objects in a system engineered for exchange rather than representation.
Alienation in this context is multi-dimensional:
1. Estrangement from political outcomes: Voters perceive that no matter their choice, electoral results are predetermined by transactional incentives rather than collective deliberation.
2. Estrangement from fellow citizens: Competition for material gain erodes solidarity, as each voter navigates the system individually, prioritizing personal benefit over collective civic interest.
3. Self-estrangement: Rationalizations, necessary to reduce cognitive dissonance, paradoxically reinforce a diminished sense of agency and civic pride.
The consequences extend beyond individual psychology. As alienation spreads, communities experience a decline in civic engagement, collective accountability, and political discourse. Political processes are no longer arenas of negotiation, deliberation, or moral judgment, but arenas of strategic survival and transactional compliance. Marxian alienation thus links the micro-level rationalizations described by cognitive dissonance and labeling to macro-level degradation of democratic norms, highlighting the structural risks of normalized vote buying.
Empirical observations in Indonesian provinces illustrate this phenomenon vividly: citizens frequently articulate resignation toward political processes, expressing sentiments such as, "Politicians forget promises anyway, so participating is just a formality." This estrangement reflects alienation at its core, showing how systemic degradation is not merely a consequence of unethical politicians, but also a societal adaptation to repeated transactional interactions.
E. Symbolic Domination (Bourdieu)
While alienation illustrates the estrangement of citizens from political processes, Bourdieu's theory of symbolic domination (1977, 1991) provides insight into how such estrangement is normalized and reinforced through cultural and social structures. Symbolic domination occurs when power is exercised not only through coercion or material incentives but also through the subtle imposition of meanings, values, and norms that appear natural or legitimate to those subjected to them.
