Fundamentals of Ibn Khaldun’s Historical Science
(From "The Muqaddimah")
Djayadi Hanan

For Ibn Khaldun, history is a science and a branch of philosophy. It is based on scientific objectives, reasoning, and methods. As a science, history must be committed to the effort of getting at the truth and separating it from the falsehood. These scientific characteristics, therefore, must be reflected in the objectives, methods, and subjects of history. The practice of history based on these criteria will enable us to categorize good historian and bad historian and correct the false information revealed by bad history.

The objective of history is about getting at the truth. Hence, it must be about explanation, about how and why, and about the causal factors related to both actors and events. History is about generalization, not merely dealing with particular. History is also about sorting out the information we have to make sure that they are information that conform the facts and logic. History cannot be dealing only with the tradition that is transmitted from time to time from one generation to another. Thus, history is not only about description of information about actors and events from the past. This does not mean however, that descriptive history is unimportant because it can serve larger public in understanding human affairs in general.

To serve this kind of objective, historian must be rigorous in dealing with information. First, there must be strong effort to get at the truth. “Critical eye” only, according to Ibn Khaldun is not enough because errors and false assumptions almost always accompany historical information. Speculative method of thinking, called as enlightening speculation by Ibn Khaldun, is crucial in unmasking the falsehood in historical information. Using good speculative mind and thoroughness will keep historian from slips and errors. Second, the writing of history requires numerous sources and knowledge. Various sources will enable the historian to cross-check the information while varied knowledge makes him be able to evaluate the information values not only by confronting it to, for instance, fundamental facts of politics, the nature of civilization or conditions governing social organizations, but also by comparing the remote/ancient materials with the near/contemporary ones. Ibn Khaldun argues that the accuracy of information is absolutely important, especially when dealing with figures such as sum of money and number of soldiers. For example, it is logically impossible to believe the historical account from al-Mas’udi about the number of Israelites’ army during Moses time which was reported to be 600,000 or more because of various reasons such as the size of territory which will be too small for their battle formation against Egypt and Syiria. In short, to get to the truth of the information, historian must carefully consider the factual proof and circumstantial evidence surrounding it.

Third, in order to be able to implement these two requirements, historian must conduct many steps in his historical examination and account. One is “to know the principles of politics, the nature of things, and the differences among nations, places, and periods” (p. 24). Two is to compare past and present and know the causes of similarities and differences. Three is to be aware of the different factors that bring historical events and actors such as dynasties and religious groups into being. Four is to check the transmitted information with the basic principles of knowledge. And five is to have a goal of having complete knowledge of causality of events and their origins.

The fourth factor to be rigorous in history is to be aware that history is about change. Awareness about this is often difficult because the process of change is sometimes deeply hidden and only becomes apparent after a long period of time. This is also the reason why not many individuals can easily be aware of it. This awareness is crucial in order for historian to identify and explain the causality of historical actors, events, and processes. Finally, history is about generalization. History, argues Ibn Khaldun “refers to events that are peculiar to a particular age or race” (p. 29). The task of the historian is to uncover the underlying general conditions of events and actors across time and space/regions. This task constitutes the foundation of historian. Thus, for instance, the work of al-Mas’udi, Muruj adh-dhahab, which mentions the conditions of regions and nations in the East and the West of his time, because of its capability of generalization, became the basic reference of historians and principal source of historical information.

What does historical science account for? According to Ibn Khaldun, history is an independent science with its own particular subject which is human civilization and social organization. It has its own particular research problem which is to explain “the conditions that attach themselves to the essence of civilization” (p. 39). Ibn Khaldun sometimes refers to the subjects of history more concretely as examination and account of dynasties, leaders, nations, and great events. From this, one could argue that his historical science is elitist because it deals with great actors/men and great events. In explaining about change for example, Ibn Khaldun reveals this elitist view by saying that “the customs of each race depend on the customs of its ruler” (p. 25). This subject of history, Ibn Khaldun further argues, makes it different from other science such as rhetoric which is concerned with convincing the mass through the use of words, or with politics which is concerned with the home or city administration in order to preserve the life of the community. Because of having its own subject and being distinct from other science, Ibn Khaldun claims that history “is an entirely original science” (p. 39).

Having laid out his fundamentals of historical science, Ibn Khaldun is now able to judge good and bad history as well as good and bad historian. A bad historian deals with bad history. Bad history, contrary to the fundamentals described above, is basically non-scientific history or history with bad method. It is featured by mere description of information or just following the transmitted information from the previous accounts, particularistic account, negligence of the change, or too brief in its presentation, making it not more that the list of names, facts, or events. The basis of this kind of history is unreliable, often fictitious, information and bad method. There are a lot of accounts fall into this category. One example is the story of “Copper City” from al-Mas’udi which says that the city was built of copper in desert of Sijilmasah during Musa b. Nusayr time which contradicts the principles of building and planning the cities. Ibn Khaldun cites numerous stories of this fictitious kind to argue that there are a lot of bad histories and historians out there.

A bad historian is a historian who cannot reveal or uncover the untruth that afflicts his historical information. There are many reasons why this problem is often unavoidable. First is because of partisanship. When a historian is too committed to a certain opinion or school of thought, he runs the risk of being not impartial in receiving and processing information. Second is the reliance upon the transmitter. Many transmitters are not authoritative and do not know the significance of their observation. Third is unawareness of the purpose of event. When an unknowledgeable transmitter passes down the historical information he will attach his own understanding of event’s significance which leads to the falsehood. Fourth is unfounded assumption about the truth. This is still related to the reliance upon the transmitter. Fifth is the ignorance of conformity between conditions and reality. This is related to inability of confronting the information with the facts or unavailability of checking and cross-checking methods. Sixth is too much focus of high ranking persons with a lot of fame and praise as information sources. Information from such a person is not reliable because of the tendency of human soul for fame and praise. And finally, the bad historian is characterized by the ignorance of the contexts of civilization. If historian has no knowledge of the nature of the world of existence, he can be misled by the peculiarity and particularity of the context of civilization. This will make him unable to separate the truth from the untruth, the particular from the general, and the reliable history from the absurd story.

In conclusion, Ibn Khaldun’s historical science is based on the scientific approach to history. History for him deals with uncovering the truth and explanation of causality in events, actors, human social organization and civilization in general. Such a history must have a rigorous method which will enable the historian to carefully and systematically crafting the historical information to be a good history.

The Legacy of Greece, Alexandria, and the Orient
In the Early Islamic Science and Philosophy
(Summarized from Majid Fakhry's A History of Islamic Philosophy)

By 641 CE, the Arab conquest over Near East had been completed. Welcomed by most of the people there as the liberator, the Arab ruler did not interfere so much on various academies that had become the centers of studying theology, philosophy, and other subjects for centuries. During this Arab rule, therefore, studies centers such as Edessa, Qinnesrin, Harran and Jundishapur were still flourishing and continued their contribution in the development of theology, philosophy, and other scientific subjects of the time.

The expansion of administrative area, not surprisingly, brought new challenges to Arab ruler. One of the main challenges is practical problem such as how to keep the accounts and record of the state in which the Arab ruler did not have experience before. At the beginning, the policy was to leave it as it was both in terms of bookkeeping and the bookkeepers. Minister of finance in the Mu’awiya period for instance, was held by Sarjun b. Mansur (the grandfather of St. John of Damascus) who held the same position during the Byzantines. Triggered by the use of Arabic as the new official language, the change, especially the translation of texts from Greek and Persian, soon initiated particularly during the reign of Umayyad caliph ‘Abdul Malik (685-705).

The translation of various texts had been made possible by several factors. First, practical consideration—to solve certain practical problems and to develop certain type of practical knowledge (practical discipline)—called for the translation of bookkeeping, and earliest scientific and medical texts in medicine, alchemy, and astrology. Initiator of this translation is the Umayyad Prince Khalid b. Yazid, followed by various translators such as Masarjawaih on medical compendium, Abdullah b. al-Muqaffah on texts like Kalilah wa Dimnah, Khudai Nameh, Ayin Nameh, the Book of Mazda and Biography of Anushirwan. The second factor is the availability of patrons. Well-known among these patrons are the Barmakid family who was very enthusiastic on Greek learning especially on the Emperor of Anushirwan, the Banu Musu family who provided generosity on the acquisition and translation of Greek texts such as Treatise on the Atom and Treatise on the Eternity of the World, and of course the caliphs themselves such as Harun al Rashid and al-Ma’mun of the ‘Abbasid. The third factor is the policy of the caliph or the state. During Harun’s time, astronomical works such as Indian’s Siddhanta, Quadripartius of Ptolemy, and several of Persians’ were translated. During al-Ma’mun’s reign, the tendency or theological bias of the caliph toward rationalist thinkers (Mu’tazilah) provided opportunities for many theological and philosophical works, especially from Greek.

While the practical disciplines such as medicine and astrology marked the beginning of translation of works from Greek, Persian and Indian, it was during the reign of caliphs Harun and al-Ma’mun that marked the flourish of the translation of philosophical works. Among the early translators is Yahia b. al-Bitriq who translated the Plato’s Timeous, Aristotle’s De Anima which greatly contributed to Arab’ conception of Aristotle’s psychology, and other works of Aristotle such as the zoological corpus, Analytica Priora, and the Secret of Secrets. Al-Ma’mun also established Bait al-Hikmah (House of Wisdom) which became the center of translation and research of the “ancient learning.” Another important translator of Greek philosophy and science is Hunain b. Ishaq (809-973) who under the patron of Banu Musa not only translated the original texts but also re-translated and scrutinized the existing translations to look at their accuracy. He translated and retranslated Galen’s Treatise on Demonstration, Hypothetical Syllogism, Ethics, paraphrasing Plato’s Sophist, Parmenides, Crytyalus, Euthydemus, Timeous, Statesman, Republic, and Laws. There were also other translation of Aristotelian works by Hunain’s associates including his son Ishaq, his nephew Hubaish, and his disciple Isa b. Yahya who were responsible for the translation of Catogories, the Hermeneutica, the Physica, the Ethica, De Plantis and several others. Equal to the greatness of Hunain was Qusta b. Luqa who translated many Greek’s works and revised the existing translations. His works include The Saying of the Philosophers, The Difference between Soul and Spirit, A Treatise of the Atom, A Political Treatise, The Physica, and many others. Other translators were Abu Bishr Matta and Yahia b. Adi whose works were on, for instance, Analytica Posteriora, Introduction to Analytica, and Treatise on Conditional Syllogism.

Most of these translators were Christian of the Nestorian or Jacobite sect with the exception of the pagan astrologer-philosopher Thabit al-Qurra whose famous works were on, among others, Nature of Stars and Their Influence, Principles of Ethics, and Music. There were abundant other translators whose works in general encompass wide range of topics in science, theology and philosophy, long range of time from early Greek, Persian and Indian, and across languages at the time.

Categorized further, these works of translations and retranslations from Greek include the Pre-Socratic, Peripatetics, and Stoics types of works. From Pre-Socratic, the two most prominent are Empedocles and Phytagoras. Phytagoras’ influence was later institutionalized in a fraternity movement called Ikhwan al Shafa (the Brethren of Purity) which arose in Basrah during the mid of eight century. From Peripatetic philosophers, the most well known translated works were of Theoprastus, Eudemus, Alexander of Aphrodisias, Themistius, and Olympiodorus. Works can be mentioned here are Alexander’s On the Intellect, Eudemian Ethics, and Repositoty of Wisdom (Siwan al Hikmah). From Stoic type of philosophy, Arabic sources mentioned the works of Chrisippus and Zeno of Citium.

The Neo-Patonic elements of philosophical works during Arab rule also important to be mentioned. The most important influence of Greek in this case was not the Aristotle’s famous Metaphysica, but rather, the alleged Aristotle’s compilation of the Theologia. Translated for al-Kindi by a Syirian Christian ‘Abd al-Masih b. Na’imah of Emessa, the Theologia, together with another Greek work, the De Causis, illuminated the dogma of emanation in Islamic philosophy. Emanation is a doctrine of “the One and the manner in which it generates the whole order of being beneath it” (p.22). This doctrine, more elaborately, explains that the divine nature is “the First Cause and that time and the aeon (al-dahr) are both beneath it, and that it is the cause of the causes and their author, after a fashion; and that the luminous virtue (or power) shines forth from it upon Reason;… Soul; … Nature” (p.23). All things according to this dogma are the emanation of the One (the First) and the Soul orders or governs either the world of forms or the particular. Islamic Neo-Platonism philosophy was then surrounded by discussion of the First Principle or God, the emanation of things from Him, the role of Reason as a God instrument of creation, the position of the Soul, and about the matter as the basest creation and the lowest rung in the cosmic scale.

The great influence of Greek philosophy did not obstruct the absorption of other influence from Persian and Indian works into the Islamic philosophy and science. It must be noted however, that the Muslims’ interest in Indian philosophy was not as great as their interest in Indian astronomy and medicine. Of this not so great influence, the anonymous treatise on Religious Beliefs of the Indians seems to be important among Arab philosophers. The copy of this work had been reported as part of the handwriting of al-Kindi, for instance. Part of the works of Indian philosophy appeared in a significant portion in the work of al-Biruni (ca. 1048) in his treatise On the Truth about the Beliefs of India. However this work came too late to have an influential impact on Muslim philosophy compared to the one from the Greek. It is also possible that through the work of al-Razi about Atomism, as a reaction against Aristotelianism, Indian philosophy can be traced. The discussion of Barahima and Sumaniya are another possibility of looking at the Indian influence on Muslim philosophy. Barahima views that prophethood or commissioning of prophet by God is altogether unnecessary. Sumaniya was an Indian sect which was also mentioned in the Arab sources, cited as a kind of skeptical epistemology which sees any supersensible knowledge as impossible.

Also influential is the Persian works. Through the works of Ibn al-Mukaffa this Persian impact can be traced. The main theme of this Persian influence is related to Manichean dualism. The polemics against heretic well-known as Zindiq are related very much to Manicheanism. A greater influence of Persian works and culture came later from new generation of Persian thinkers and philosophers. Most of this influence were marked by the works of Muslim thinkers of Persian origin such as Sibawayh (a grammarian), Ibn Sina (a philosopher), al-Razi (a physician), and al-Ghazali (a theologian).

Masjid, Sandal dan Sepatu

Sejak menikah tahun 2002 lalu saya masih saja jadi kontraktor, alias tempat tinggalnya ngontrak melulu. Meskipun tidak disengaja dari awal, tempat tinggal saya selalu sangat dekat dengan masjid.

Tahun 2003 saya pulang ke Indonesia, setelah sekolah di Athens, Ohio selama dua setengah tahun dan bekerja sebagai sekretaris Konsulat Jenderal RI di Houston selama enam bulan. Istri saya waktu itu masih di Surabaya karena masih bertugas sebagai dokter muda (ko-asisten) di RS Dr. Soetomo. Sementara saya bekerja di Jakarta. Jadilah kami ngontrak di dua tempat. Di Surabaya kami ngontrak di daerah Kedung Sroko. Dibelakang rumah kami masjid Muhammadiyah, sementara di samping rumah ada musholla NU. Di Jakarta saya ngontrak di Kali Pasir. Seingat saya bisa jalan kaki ke setidaknya empat masjid, termasuk masjid Cut Mutia dan Al Fataa (Mentra 58). Sebelumnya ketika masih di Athens, saya bahklan sempat tinggal selama setahun di Islamic Center dan menjadi sekretaris pengurus. Di Konsulat Jenderal RI di Houston, karena hapal beberapa surah dan ayat Qur’an, bisa sedikit mengutip ayat, dan agak bisa khutbah Jum’at (maklum pernah di PII), jadilah saya di “daulat” sebagai Imam tidak resmi musholla KJRI.

Tahun 2004 kami pindah ke Bojong Gede, Bogor. Lagi lagi, secara tak sengaja, dekat masjid besar. Hanya sekitar satu menit jalan kaki. Kurang dari sepeminuman teh dingin kalau memakai bahasa Wiro Sableng. Tahun 2006, istri saya diterima sebagai PNS di Pemerintah Kota Sukabumi. Dia ditugaskan sebagai salah satu dokter disebuah Puskesmas. Kami ngontrak rumah lagi dan secara tak sengaja dekat dengan satu masjid besar dan satu musholla. Karena saya bekerja di Jakarta, saya pun ngontrak di Mampang Prapatan III, dibelakang kampus Universitas Paramadina. Kali ini bisa dibilang berlokasi disamping masjid. Tinggal disini dijamin tak ketinggalan sholat tahajud dan subuh, kecuali kalau telinga kita tuli. “Loudspeaker” masjid yang besar itu sudah mulai bergema sejak sekitar jam setengah empat pagi.

Musim gugur tahun 2007, saya dan keluarga berangkat lagi ke Amerika. Saya harus menyelesaikan S3 atas biaya dari Fulbright. Kali ini saya kuliah di The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Columbus adalah ibu kota negara bagian Ohio. Ternyata, apartemen kami juga dekat masjid. Namanya masjid Omar Ibn El-Khattab. Berjarak sekitar tiga menit jalan kaki. Kalau musim dingin, saya naik mobil kesana.

Mahasiswa S3 di Amerika adalah “lonely worker,” semuanya tergantung diri sendiri. Para professor tidak terlalu campur tangan. Mau pintar, mau bodoh, tergantung kemauan dan usaha sendiri. Para professor akan dengan senang hati memfasilitasi apa yang kita butuhkan. Karena itu kita kadang merasa jenuh dan kesepian. Pengobatnya biasanya berkumpul bersama keluarga (dan anak). Ini juga alasan mengapa penting membawa keluarga kalau S3 di Amerika. Untuk saya, salah satu hiburannya, selain pengobat kebutuhan ruhaniah, ya pergi ke masjid. Hampir setiap hari selama setahun ini saya sholat maghrib dan isya (juga sholat Jum’at) di masjid ini.

Ada hal yang menarik dan kadang menjengkelkan saya setiap kali sholat disini. Pengurus masjid, setiap akhir sholat, sangat sering mengingatkan jamaah untuk meletakkan sandal dan sepatunya di rak yang telah disediakan dipintu masuk. Awalnya saya berpikir para jamaah ini kan orang-orang terdidik dari berbagai negara. Ada Arab, Mesir, Libya, Maroko, Somali, Amerika, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, dan lain-lain. Haruskah hanya soal sandal dan sepatu mereka diingatkan, dinegeri Amerika pula.

Akan tetapi, setelah saya perhatikan selama setahun ini, memang rak sepatu masjid ini tak pernah rapi. Sekalipun raknya masih belum penuh, bahkan agak kosong, selalu saja banyak jamaah yang meletakkan sepatu dan sandalnya sembarangan. Beberapa pengurus masjid ada yang sampai mengingatkan jamaah sambil marah. Puncaknya adalah hari Sabtu lalu. Kebetulan ada anggota jamaah yang mengadakan hajatan “aqiqah” karena baru dikaruniai bayi laki-laki. Jadi ada makan-makan di masjid setelah maghrib. Banyak pula anak-anak yang hadir dibawa orang tua mereka. Tempat sandal dan sepatu itu benar-benar seperti “kapal pecah,” bahkan mengganggu kelancaran jalan masuk dan keluar. Salah seorang pengurus masjid, tampaknya orang Amerika, dengan suara agak tinggi mengingatkan jamaah soal ini. Dia juga bilang, kalau penyebab makin parahnya kesemrawutan ini adalah anak-anak, tapi yang bertanggungjawab adalah orang tuanya. Dia sampai bilang: “if you can’t teach and be responsible to your children, don’t bring them to the masjid or don’t even have children!”

Sholat sunnah rawatib saya terganggu. Sewaktu duduk selesai sholat, saya agak merenung. Kalau soal sandal dan sepatu saja, sudah lebih dari setahun ini tak selesai, bagaimana kita mau menyelesaikan masalah seperti Palestina? Juga masalah-masalah besar lainnya.

Agama, Obama, Amerika

Djayadi Hanan

Dinegara maju seperti Amerika, dinegara berkembang seperti Indonesia, soal agama dan politik tampaknya sama saja. Fenomena Barrack Obama di Amerika adalah bukti paling mutakhir betapa agama tak dapat dilepaskan dari kehidupan politik.

Diawal kemunculannya sebagai bakal calon presiden lebih dari setahun yang lalu sebagian publik Amerika mulai mempersoalkan kaitan Obama dengan Islam. Ayahnya yang berasal dari Kenya adalah seorang muslim. Berkembang pula rumor bahwa ketika berada di Indonesia, Obama bersekolah di “madrasah.” Bagi publik Amerika, madrasah berkonotasi sebagai sekolah tempat muslim radikal. Seorang reporter Fox News, ketika membahas masalah ini di sekitar akhir 2007 lalu berkomentar kira-kira begini: “if he really attended a radical muslim school in Indonesia, this is huge!” Kalimat “this is huge” maksudnya untuk menunjukkan bahwa ini adalah masalah besar yang tak boleh diabaikan. CNN kemudian membuat liputan tandingan atas masa lalu Obama di Indonesia. Nyatalah kemudian bahwa Obama hanyalah bersekolah di SD negeri dikawasan Menteng Jakarta Pusat.

Salah satu website kelompok konservatif di Amerika, Human Events, mengulas bahwa bila Obama terpilih sebagai presiden, maka ia akan menjadi presiden muslim pertama di Amerika. Brian Williams, seorang pewawancara terkenal dari NBC Amerika, ketika menjadi panelis dalam debat antara Hillary dan Obama dalam pemilihan pendahuluan di Ohio, juga mengkonfirmasi dan meminta komentar Obama soal kemuslimannya. Kata Brian, “sebagian publik Amerika mempercayai rumor bahwa anda ketika disumpah menjadi senator mewakili Negara Bagian Illinois, tidak menggukana Bible, tapi menggunakan Koran (Qur’an), apa pendapat anda?” Obama ketika itu hanya tersenyum dan sekali lagi menyatakan berita itu bohong dan dia tidak pernah menjadi muslim. Seorang pendeta konservatif, yang menjadi pendukung John McCain, saya lupa namanya, selalu menyebut nama Obama secara lengkap dalam pidatonya: Barrack Hussein Obama. Kata “Hussein” selalu lebih ditekankan dalam penyebutan itu. Maksudnya tentu saja untuk menunjukkan kaitan antara Obama dengan muslim/Islam.

Dalam salah satu FGD (Focused Group Discussion) yang disiarkan oleh stasiun televisi publik PBS, salah satu yang muncul dibenak peserta ketika ditanya soal Obama oleh moderator adalah bahwa dia seorang muslim. Ketika ditanya lagi apa memang benar begitu, kebanyakan peserta itu ragu-ragu. Artinya mereka tidak yakin apa benar Obama bukan muslim. Fenomena paling terkini adalah kartun di surat kabar The New Yorker yang menggambarkan Obama berpakaian seperti Taliban dan Michelle (istrinya) yang berpakaian teroris dan bersenjata, sedang beradu kepalan tangan (tanda keakraban) dengan latar belakan bendera Amerika yang dibakar. Stasiun TV Fox News yang juga memberitakan kartun ini, menyiarkan pula hasil survey terbaru soal kaitan Obama dengan muslim. Dari survey itu, 12 persen publik Amerika percaya bahwa Obama seorang muslim, 32 persen percaya Obama dibesarkan keluarga muslim, dan lebih dari 40 persen percaya bahwa Obama memiliki “muslim connection.”

Apa kesimpulan sementara yang dapat ditarik? Bukan soal benar tidaknya Obama sebagai seorang muslim yang penting. Meskipun secara teoritis demokrasi membolehkan siapa saja menjadi presiden, tampaknya, kesamaan agama antara presiden dengan mayoritas penduduk sudah menjadi semacam kelaziman kalau bukan keharusan tak tertulis. Agama, tetap merupakan hal yang penting dalam politik di Amerika, setidaknya bagi sebagian publik. Selain itu, Islam/muslim, setidaknya bagi sebagian masyarakat Amerika masih dianggap sebagai ancaman. Salah satu sebabnya mungkin adalah kesalahfahaman. Bila benar demikian, tugas kedua belah pihak untuk saling menjelaskan, masih sangat banyak.

Authoritarianism in Democratization Era

Djayadi Hanan

As suggested by Huntington (1991), the last quarter of the twentieth century can be regarded as the third wave of democratization. It is featured by the fall of dictatorship/authoritarian rulers in many parts of the world from Portuguese to Mexico, from Eastern Europe to Latin America to Asia and Africa (Brownlee, 2007). Democracy starts flourishing in these many areas following the demise of the authoritarianism. Some of them are moving toward consolidation, some are still struggling to finish the transition period. Despite this big wave of democratization, many of the authoritarian rulers/regimes are still persistent. Several of the democratizing countries even reverted back to authoritarianism.

This paper reviews a number of current literatures that deal with the question of why and how the authoritarian regime/ruler can still be persistent in the current democratization era. It will bring the answer to this question offered by the literature on democratization and social movement. Schock (2005) has pointed out that democratization theory usually focuses its explanation about the process of democratization based on either the structural requisites of democracy or transaction among elites. On the other hand, social movement perspectives focus on the process of mass political contention which, almost always precedes democratization. This paper looks at these explanations by examining how they deal with the persistent of authoritarianism in facing the wave of democratization.

Why the Question is Important?

The question of why authoritarianism is still persistent despite the global third wave of democratization is important both for empirical and theoretical reasons. Many authoritarian regimes in the area expected to be swept away by democratization wave still last until today. Several countries, such as Cuba in Latin America, do not experience any change, although the structural condition seems to be favorable to democratization (Hawkins, 2001). In Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Indonesia, two big island countries, have become electoral democracy for more than a decade while others in this region still show their authoritarian characteristics (Slater, 2006). The view that most countries are being swept by democratization wave is becoming debatable. Many democratizing countries/transition countries have problems in consolidating their democracies. Several of them such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru and Uruguay experience reversal process to authoritarianism (Tilly, 2003).

From theoretical point of view, understanding why many contemporary authoritarian regimes last will enable the scholars not to be trapped by the “narrowly defined frame of modern political institutions: parties, legislatures, and most prominently elections” (Brownlee, 2002: 478). Many regimes have and practice those kinds of political institutions, but it does not necessarily mean that they are democratic. Moreover, the study on democratization has been focusing mainly on countries experiencing democratization or transition to authoritarianism, and not so much on the absence of transition. By examining the persistence of authoritarianism, the scholars will be able to “examine all outcomes on the dependent variable: regime stability as well as regime change” (Hawkins, ibid: 441).

In reviewing the accounts on the persistence of authoritarianism in this era of democratization I categorize the countries into countries that do not experience transition or only experience liberalization and countries that experience transition. In general, the explanations about the persistence of authoritarianism in the last half of the twentieth century (third wave of democratization) introduce the concept of authoritarian resilience (Nathan, 2002) and competitive authoritarianism (Levitsky and Way, 2003). Authoritarian resilience is the adaptability, complexity, autonomy and coherence of state organization under the regime. Competitive authoritarianism is a type of hybrid regime in which it does not meet the standard of democracy but still allows democratic institutions such as opposition to play out and the regime is playing around between cracking it down and losing power. Besides that, in the countries where democratization is in the struggle of completing the transition or trying to move to consolidation, the possibility of de-democratization is high because of authoritarian nostalgia and the disillusionment of democracy.

Elites and Structural Perspectives

In the countries where the transition is absent, the explanation about authoritarian resilience can be considered based on elites and structural perspectives. The most salient region in which authoritarianism has consistently shown its resilience is the Middle East. Some countries in other areas such as in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe have also showed their durability in maintaining authoritarianism. Elite and structural explanations on these literatures sometimes emphasize only one of them and sometimes make the link between the two. This makes sense because authoritarian regime is usually featured by certain dominant elite and supported by certain authoritarian structures.

Many examples of structural based account can be mentioned here. Brownlee (2004 and 2007), by examining Egypt and Malaysia and comparing them to Iran and the Philippines, shows that party institutionalization is the explanatory variable of the durable authoritarianism. Ruling/dominant parties in Egypt and Malaysia have been able from time to time to resolve intra-elite conflict and prevent further schism because of defection of influential leaders. In Iran and the Philippines, the decline of the ruling party has encouraged open and unresolved elite conflicts and provides further structural condition for opposition mobilization. Electoral politics, instead of destabilizing the regime, has been used as method of coalition maintenance among elites and preserving the authoritarianism. This notion of institutional manipulation is also used by Schedler (2002) by introducing the electoral authoritarianism in which the regime uses electoral manipulation to control electoral outcomes.

In Syiria, Wedeen (1999) uses the concept of “disciplinary symbolic power” which has structured the compliance of the citizens based on the centralization of authority and the creation of cult of Hafez al-Asad (the President). Through this mechanism of disciplinary symbolic power, the citizens were compelled to believe that they accept the cult’s claims. This mechanism has enabled the authoritarian ruler to maintain the power. Bellin (2004) also uses structural/institutional explanation when she points out to the will and coercive capacity of the state in suppressing the democratic initiatives, if any. Authoritarian regimes like in the Middle East, according to Bellin, have all elements of the robustness of coercive apparatus namely the fiscal health, the successful maintenance of international support, the low level of institutionalization of security establishment, and the degree of popular mobilization that it faces (the lower the more robust). Meanwhile, Vandewalle (1998), through his examination of Libya under Qadafhi, looks at the structure of state revenue (oil) which does not rely on people (taxation) as the factor that gives the ability to the personalistic regime to “buy” the people by sharing some of the state income to the citizens and strengthen the power.

Several other works have focused mainly on elite approach when explaining the persistence of authoritarianism in the countries where transition is absent. Monarchiism/family rule approach is used by Herb (1999) to examine many Persian Gulf current monarchies such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Herb shows that by keeping the power and its distribution among the royal families, the state has been able to prevent the dangerous political disputes among elites which can lead to the breakdown of the regime. All members of elites get their share in all top levels of government positions and make them secured in the system and resistant to the possible changes. Like Herb in the Persian Gulf, Hawkins (ibid) uses a more elite approach in examining why the authoritarianism is persistent in Cuba. Hawkins shows that “the absence of key democratizing agent inside Cuba—independent social group and softline regime factions” as the key factor in the durability of Cuban authoritarianism (ibid: 441). Cuba, according to Hawkins experiences all structural pressures favorable to regime breakdown such as socioeconomic development, economic crisis, and international pressure, but the state leadership (Castro) and its charismatic legitimacy have prevented the emergence of democratizing actors.

Meanwhile, Jones (1998) finds that illiberal character of middle class as important factor. The rise of middle class in East and Southeast Asia does not support the notion that the middle class will facilitate the authoritarian regime change toward democracy. Ruling elite and middle class in East and Southeast Asia according to Jones are “ideologically, economically, and ethnically homogeneous” (ibid: 156). This kind of middle class is state dependent and quiescent. Therefore, instead of demanding more liberalization and democratization, this middle class plays active roles in strengthening the state, especially in supporting its development strategy. This illiberal character of middle class has been one factor that maintains the durability of authoritarianism.

This structural and elite approach has been able to identify that the narrow definition of electoral democracy is not enough to understand whether the transition has been underway or not. Authoritarian regimes in fact use this electoral mechanism as one way to legitimize their existence. Differentiating liberalization from democratization, therefore, is important to understand the durability of authoritarianism. Liberalization has been used by the regime to respond to the increasing demands of democracy. This is possible because liberalization is characterized by “the more modest goal of merely loosening restrictions and expanding individual and group rights within an authoritarian regime” (Shin, 1994: 142) and the regime keeps an eye on its process and makes necessary adjustment based on assessment whether its power is in jeopardy or not. Introducing election, for example, can be merely part of this kind of liberalization.

One main critique to this structural and elites explanation is on its tendency to neglect the masses or the development of civil society. Kurzman (1996) for example shows that the state strengths cannot account for the durability of the authoritarian regime. The masses and civil society organizations, through the accumulation of shifting perception about the ability of the masses to overcome the strength and the threat of the state could finally bring down the regime. Another issue is international ties. Most of authoritarian regimes in the Middle East for instance have strong support from the West. Regimes like in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait have been enjoying the strong supports from the United States for decades. This has enabled the regimes to not rely so much on the legitimacy of the people and have room for using repression indiscriminately which in turn only provide very limited space for the opposition to grow. Related to these international ties, also important to note that in especially Middle Eastern countries where the durability of authoritarianism is the most salient one, the role of cultural explanation (Islam) cannot be neglected. The demand for more open system in this area have been mostly voiced by the so called Islamist movement such as Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (Hafez and Wiktorowicz, 2004) and Salafi Movement in Saudi Arabia (Okruhlik, 2004). It is possible that the fear that a more open/democratic system will be captured by Islamists as the venue for advancing their agendas has made the international supports from the West take side to the authoritarian regimes rather than democratization.

Social Movement Perspective

Especially in the countries where the transition to democracy involved political contentions and or mass political protest, scholars have been using the social movement perspective to understand why authoritarian regime does not experience its breakdown. In contrast to structural/elite approach, the focus therefore has been on the development of civil society.

Examining democratic transition in Asia, Lee (2002), for example, by using social movement perspectives, maintains that the primary cause of the transition is political protest. In other words, the absence of political protest and the availability of the regime to crush the movement can explain why the authoritarianism persists. The common characteristics of this political protest are: 1) mainly conducted by college students started from the capital city and spread out to many major cities in the country; 2) supported by the middle class; 3) using broad umbrella organization; and 4) it resulted in snowball effect from domestic level all the way up to international level.

Another example is the work from Kurt Schock (1999, 2005) who uses the social movement framework to look at the ability of authoritarian regimes to be resilience. According to him, the inability of the protest movement to be resilient and the absence of the structure of political opportunities such as in Burma and China determine the durability of the authoritarian regimes. There are three keys to Schock’s argument. First, the paradox of repression. All regimes responded with series of repression to the movements, but the effect was different. In South Africa, the Philippines, Nepal, and Thailand it resulted in the strengthening of the challengers while in Burma and China resulted in the collapse of the movements. Schock explains that “… repression may increase or decrease mobilization depending on the presence or absence of other dimensions in the opportunity structure” (2005: 33) such as the influential allies. Second, the movement’s resilience. This resilience is determined by whether or not the challengers’ organization is decentralized or centralized. The more decentralized the movement, the more resilient it will be. Third, leveraging capacity or the ability to activate the third parties to support the movement. In part this is related to the first and second factors, and in another part it depends on the appeal of the movement.

Several critical assessments can be designated to this approach. First, it cannot explain why in certain authoritarian countries civil society is ready to protest and not in other authoritarian countries. Political opportunity approach for example cannot explain why there was no strong/massive political protest in Cuba despite the availability of such windows of opportunities. Second, it can only explain the breakdown or the persistence of regime, not the trajectory of the movement. Social movement approach cannot answer why for example in Iran, the breakdown of the authoritarian regime was then followed by the establishment of another authoritarian system. Finally, this approach can only explain the liberalization process. In the case of authoritarian resilience, the elites and states are more important. Liberalization can be introduced and the social movement can grow but as long as the elites and state remain intact the social movement can only play limited role.

Incomplete Democratization Perspective

In the countries where democratization is underway, scholars use the democratization process to understand why some countries are experiencing the slowing down of transition or reverted democratic process. Shin (1994) has identified that at least there are four stages of democratization: decay of authoritarian rule; transition; consolidation; and the maturing of democratic political order. Countries that cannot move forward through these stages (incomplete process of democratization) are in danger of going back to authoritarianism.

According to Kubicek (1998), the resistance to change of the former Soviet republics in Central Asia for instance is caused by many structural factors which cannot facilitate the breakdown of the authoritarian regimes. Those structural factors are low level of economic development, traditional culture, weak civil society, the communist legacy, and ethnic cleavages. The absence of factors favorable to democratization, in other words, provides room for authoritarian regime to remain the same. Thus, Kubicek basically argues that these Central Asian countries has been in the process of the decay of authoritarianism but cannot move to the transition process.

Another account is about backward democratization. From their study on Russia, Czech and the Republic of Korea, Rose and Shin (2001) introduce the notion of backward democratization that leads to incomplete democratization which in turn can bring the process back to authoritarianism. According to them, democracies in the first wave countries have been supported by the availability of modern state institutions before electoral democracy was introduced and make it stable democracy. In contrast, democracy in the third wave countries is featured by the lack of modern state institutions which provides the possibilities for authoritarian elites to capture the process and revert it back to authoritarianism. Incomplete process is also featured by institutional democratization that is not followed by cultural democratization. Embracing democracy as “the only game in town” is the first step, not the last step of democratization (Shin and Tusalem, 2007). Democracy is the government by demos, therefore, without the people who have political attitudes, beliefs and values of democracy such as efficacy, tolerance, and trust, democratization cannot sustain and in danger of being reverted.

Perhaps, the most common account on the slowing down of democratization or the reverted process is the problem democratic disillusionment and authoritarian nostalgia (Bratton, 2004; Chang et.al., 2007). In Africa, according to Bratton, the people soon realize that, after the regime change but not followed by the change in their quality of life and the incumbents who are supported by popular mandate indulge themselves in corrupt and manipulative behavior, there is no real change or improvement. In this situation, Bratton continues, “it does not take long until the general public becomes disillusioned with democracy” (ibid: 148). Facing this problem, one of the people’s main choices according to Chang et.al. (ibid) is the “authoritarian nostalgia.” Especially in East and Southeast Asia, this nostalgia is important because the performance of former authoritarian regime especially in economic growth is used by the people as the bar to see the progress under new democracy. When they do not get their dream in the process of democracy they start remembering the good side of authoritarian regime (especially economic growth) and want it back. The example of the transition process in Benin (Bratton and Walle, 1994) in which the people went back to choose the former authoritarian leader is a very good example of this phenomenon.

Although it is good in explaining why some countries go back to authoritarianism, this democratization process approach can be criticized as focusing very much on structural factors. The agency and civil society at the most are only part of the process. Again, it cannot answer why in country like Cuba, where all structural favorable factors available, yet there is still no transition (elite choice is not considered). Besides that, this approach does not explain how the contentious politics contributes to the strategy of regime in maintaining its power. As has been shown by Lee (2002), political protest matters in democratic transition and the resilience of authoritarianism in Asia. In addition, this approach focuses only on countries where democratization occurs, thus cannot be used to examine why there is no transition in certain countries.

Conclusion

This short review has tried to show that the ability of authoritarian regimes to survive despite being swept away by the wave of democratization is related to complex factors. On one side, the authoritarian regime’s institutionalization and cohesiveness can manage to meet the challenges and to some extent manipulate part of democratization process to support the maintenance of the regime. On the other side, attempts to bring down the regime in several countries are weak and the process of democratization is protracted and tiring resulted in disillusionment of democracy in many countries. The combination of these many factors can keep authoritarian regimes remain durable or revert the democratization process back to authoritarianism.

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Leadership and Change: In Search of Human Agency

Djayadi Hanan

The conceptualization of agency and structure and the relationship between the two will affect how we view the role of leadership, especially in its relation to change. Leadership is usually associated with the emphasis on human agency. Imbroscio, in his discussion on “Structure, Agency and Democratic Theory” (1999) for instance, suggests that the emphasis on agency or structure will determine to what extent the role of democratic leader is conceptualized. It also will have significant implication to the practice of democracy. Similarly, what is change and what factors cause it are questions that bring the debate in social sciences, including political science, into the contrast and relations between agency and structure. Change can be caused by agency or structure or by both of them depends on how the social scientists define agency, structure, and the relations among them. Literature on transition to or the breakdown of democracy, for example have been engaging in the debate between the voluntarism camp which takes the agency as the explanatory factor, and the determinism camp which emphasizes the role of structure as the cause of the regime change (Mahoney and Snyder, 1999; Kitschelt, 1992).

This paper looks at several notions/concepts which are developed by social scientists about the role of agency and structure and identify some of its implications on the conceptualization of the role of leader and leadership as human agency especially in its relation to change. With different point of departure, three articles from Emirbayer and Mische (1998), Sewell (1992) and Mahoney and Snyder (1999) reviewed in this paper are attempting to look at agency and structure without being in favor of one and eliminating the other. This paper argues that the conceptualization of agency and structure and their relationship which attempts to view that the existence of one does not deny the other will be useful to understand how leadership (leaders) can make a difference in social change.

Defining Agency: An Autonomous Actor?

All articles reviewed in this paper claim that they are attempting to put both agency and structure in a way that is not in favor of one or the other. It is interesting that both article that focuses on agency such as Emirbayer and Mische’s, and article that focuses on structure such as Sewell’s started with the statement that the subject they are dealing with is the most under theorized, elusive, and confusing in social sciences. Both structure and agency seem to suffer the same conceptualization problem especially on the relationship between the two.

In conceptualizing the relationship between agency and structure, most theories, according to Emirbayer and Mische tend to make agency “…remain so tightly bound to structure that one loses sight of the different ways in which agency actually shapes social action” (963). Agency according to them must be reconceptualized by looking at its several analytical elements and how those elements related to (interpenetrate) with structures. Therefore they define agency as:

“the temporally constructed engagement by actors of different structural environments—the temporal relational contexts of action—which, through the interplay of habit, imagination, and judgment, both reproduces and transforms those structures in interactive response to the problems posed by changing historical situations” (Emirbayer and Mische: 970).

Because of its capacity to differentiate the different dimensions of agency, Emirbayer and Mische argue that their conceptualization “can help account for variability and change in actors’ capacities for imaginative and critical intervention in the diverse contexts within which they act” (970). Their conceptualization is also claimed to focus on the dynamic possibilities of human agency by viewing it as “composed of variable and changing orientations within the flow of time” (964).

This conceptualization provides clear place for human agency. It assumes that agency has its own reasoning and consciousness (imagination) in its efforts of intervening diverse contexts. This notion of temporal constructive engagement seems to be in line with the conceptualization from Bhaskar (1979: 48-49) that “social structures, unlike natural structures, do not exist independently of the agents’ conceptions of what they are doing in their activity.”

Based on their definition, Emirbayer and Mische propose three constitutive elements of agency i.e. iteration, projectivity, and practical evaluation. Iteration is “the selective reactivation by actors of past patterns of thought and action, as routinely incorporated in practical activity, thereby giving stability and order to social universes and helping to sustain identities, interactions, and institutions over time” (971). Projectivity is “the imaginative generation by actors of possible future trajectories of action, in which received structures of thought and action may be creatively reconfigured in relation to actors’ hopes, fears, and desires for the future” (971). Practical evaluation is “the capacity of actors to make practical and normative judgments among alternative possible trajectories of action, in response to the emerging demands, dilemmas, and ambiguities of presently evolving situations” (971).

By introducing these constitutive elements, especially on the projective capabilities of the agency, Emirbayer and Mische give further place and significant role to human agency in the making of change. Projective element seems to imply that human agency has the capabilities of constructing the future and use the current temporal engagement to achieve it. This projection of future can be put in the current framework of structure or outside it. In line with this assessment, Hays categorizes change into reproductive and transformative (1994:63-64). By using the temporal constructive engagement of Emirbayer and Mische, it can be further stated that agency can construct the engagement as to reproduce or transform the structure. Burns’s notion on transforming leadership (1978) can also be understood in the framework of these constitutive elements of agency.

In the current dichotomy of agency–structure, Emirbayer and Mische’s conceptualization of agency starts from the side of agency and then projects it to structure. Clearly, agency is more a focus here. The problem with this conceptualization is that it has the tendency to assume that actor always understands the contexts. Or actor can always adjust its engagement construction over time in a changing context. The first problem is that actor does not always understand the context. Wendt (1987: 359) has pointed out that “agents may not understand the structural antecedents or implications of their actions.” The second problem is the constructive engagement by the agent can result in the unintended outcome and the further response of the agent can be more problematic because it can also result in more unintended outcomes. Strategic choice approach used by Collier and Norden (1992) for example shows that agent’s choice depends on strategic environment which does not always provide complete information to make agency fully understands the context.

In contrast with Emirbayer and Mische, Sewell’s conception of agency can be regarded as structure based. It starts with structure and then projects it to the agency. However, he views agency “not as opposed to, but as constituent of structure” (20). Agency is the one that is:

“capable of exerting some degree of control over the social relations in which one is enmeshed, which in turn implies the ability to transform those social relations to some degree. … agents are empowered to act with and against others by structure: they have knowledge of the schemas that inform social life and have access to some measure of human and non human resources. Agency arises from the actor’s knowledge of schemas, which means the ability to apply them to new contexts. Agency is implied by the existence of structures” (20).

Therefore, Sewell also puts agency in an important place. However, his conception is different from Emirbayer and Mische in the sense that he puts the structure more as the source of the agency’s capacity. He clearly views agency as inseparable from the structure (something that seems to bother Emirbayer and Mische). In other words, the existence of structure constitutes the human agency. He further states that “capacity of agency… is inherent in all humans. But… humans are born with only a highly generalized capacity for agency…. The specific forms that agency will take consequently vary enormously and are culturally and historically determined” (20). Human has a kind of limited autonomous agency capacities at the first place which then develops depending upon the structure it encounters. On this, Sewell further states that “…agency differs enormously in both kind and extent. …what intention they can form, and what sort of creative transpositions they can carry out vary dramatically from one social world to another depending on the nature of the particular structures that inform those social world” (20-21).

The question is however; to what extent this born-agency capacity differs from one agency to another. Can this explanation be related to the different personal or psychological traits of individuals? From the leadership point of view, can this be the source of agency based explanation about the different outcome of the actions from different leaders? Unfortunately, Sewell does not elaborate more what he really means by “highly generalized capacity” of human agency. He does not explain further about what is the relationship of this inherent generalized capacity of agency with the next capacity that the agency gets later from its interaction with the structure. Is that relation is deterministic or more dynamic? If it is dynamic, what accounts for that? Do different agencies get the same empowerment from structure? Also, how the agency gets these agentic capacities? Sewell’s explanation does not give insight to answer those questions.

Mahoney and Snyder’s conception of human agency is different from both Emirbayer and Mische and Sewell. From their study on the explanation of regime change, they try to embrace/synthesize both agency based and structural based conception of human agency. According to them, “Voluntarist approaches conceive human behavior as underdetermined by social structures. In this view, actors’ identities and interests during regime transformations cannot be explained by social or economic roles. Human action is understood as a force external to and disengaged from “objective” social relations” (5). This conception is called undersocialized conception of human agency. Structural approaches on the other hand “treat the identities and interests of actors as defined by positions within social structures and view choices and actions as results of these positions” (5). This is called oversocialized conception of human agency.

The undersocialized conception on interaction between actors and change, Mahoney and Snyder continue, “deemphasizes the possibility that these interactions may be affected by pre-existing social relations which shape actors’ interests and capabilities” (5). This results in the tendency of voluntarist approaches to “overemphasize immediate, short-term processes, choices, and political crafting, while ignoring the extent to which “the possible” is conditioned by social structures” (5). The inverse problem occurs to the oversocialized conception of agency. It has bias for emphasizing long-term, impersonal processes and for overlooking the possibility that actors may have margins of maneuverability during periods of regime change (5).

Mahoney and Snyder’s proposal is to combine the two approaches of undersocialized and oversocialized human agency. They come up with “structurally conceptual based” and “voluntaist conceptual based” human agencies (6-7). There are two problems of this kind of broad conceptualization. First is objective problem. How do we decide that the problem we are dealing with can be analyzed by using structurally based or voluntary based human agency? Is it based on the characteristic of leadership during the time of regime change? Or, is it based on the type of socio-economic factors dominant during the time of regime change? Are there any other objective criteria for judging it? The second problem is subjective problem. By introducing the structurally based and voluntary based human agency, Mahoney and Snyder tend to leave it to the subjective tendency of the researcher in analyzing and explaining the problem. If the researcher tends to lean toward voluntarism, he /she will tend to use it as analytical tools and vise versa. Therefore this categorization is less helpful in conceptualizing further the role of leadership in change.

Defining Structure: Context and Culture?

In Emirbayer and Mische’s conceptualization, structure is defined more as contexts or environment in which human agency can show “varying degrees of maneuverability, inventiveness, and reflective choice in relation to the constraining and enabling contexts of action” (964). Structure or structural environment: “are both dynamically sustained by and altered trough human agency—by actors capable of formulating project for the future and realizing them, even if only in small part, and with unforeseen outcomes, in the present” (964).

This characterization of structure seems to imply that structure is more like a playing field for agency. This concept is again seems to be in line with Bhaskar’s notion that “structure may be only relatively autonomous. …, they do not exist independently of the conceptions that the agents possess of what they are doing, … (1979: 48). The different contexts or structure or environment affect agency’s construction on how to engage with it and later, the agency will prepare further response on the possible changing structure as a result of the previous temporal engagement. This can be regarded as a kind of Sewell’s characterization of human agency on its general agency capacity at the first place but Emirbayer and Mische apply it on structure. If this reading is true, Emirbayer and Mische look at the structure as having a sort of general impact on agency at the first place but the further impact depends on how the agency constructs its temporal engagement with the structure. Both agency and structure then is in the state of changing over time but the direction of change is more on the control of agency. This is one of the main problems of this characterization because it can lead to the impression that everything can be controlled by agency. If we accept the notion that agency does not always understand the structure as has been reiterated by Wendt, the problem is getting problematic. The failure of understanding the context will result in the improper temporal engagement construction which can lead to unintended outcomes. The strategic choice models for example, has suggested that the games that are played by agency in many instances (if not most) are not based on complete information, but the games of incomplete information in which there is no uncertainty about the environment or structure and the agency must rely on possible choices that can be drawn from the signal of the strategic environment.

Structure according to Sewell consists of schema and resources. Schema is “generalizable procedures applied in the enactment/reproduction of social life. They are generalizable in the sense that they can be applied in or extended to various contexts of interactions” (8). Sewell’s examples of this schema are rules of etiquette, aesthetic norms, recipes for group actions, democratic vote, set of equivalence such as wet and dry, male and female, nature and culture, private and public, etc. This schema is generalized (can be transposed or extended) to new situations when there is opportunity (8). Resource as the second element of structure consists of two types: human and non human. Nonhuman resources are “objects, animate or inanimate, naturally occurring or manufactured, that can be used to enhance or maintain power; human resources are physical strength, dexterity, knowledge, and emotional commitments that can be used to enhance or maintain power, including knowledge of the means of gaining, retaining, controlling, and propagating either human or nonhuman resources. Both type of resources are media of power and are unevenly distributed” (8-9).

In Sewell’s conception, structure is possible to change. Social transformation in his view cannot only explained by the change from outside the system. Social transformation can be generated by the operation of structure internal to society (16). This will be possible if the theory of structure adopts a multiple, contingent, and fractured conception of society and structure. He further suggests five axioms that will enable the social transformation. The five axioms are the multiplicity of structures, the transposibility of schemas, the unpredictability of resource accumulation, the polysemy of resources, and the intersection of structures (16).

The room for human agency in Sewell’s construction of structure looks more limited that Emirbayer and Mische’s conceptualization. Sewell’s human agency’s role in social transformation depends on the five enabling axioms of the change. The most possible significant role of human agency in social transformation derives from the concept of transposability of schema. Agency’s knowledge of a rule or schema means “the ability to … apply it creatively” (Sewell: 18). The room of transposability is limited however, because it depends on the opportunity. This opportunity seems to be more structurally bounded.

According to Mahoney and Snyder, structure can be viewed from the constraint and generative models. Constraint model depends on the conception of structures as contingent constraint that “potentially limits the ability of actors to achieve their goals” (6). In constraint model “structural factors are treated as barriers external to actors which may or may not stand between them and the achievement of their autonomous goals and interests” (6). Generative model conceives structure as “necessary relations internalized by actors and from which their interests, identities and goals derive” (6). Structure constitutes the properties that define actors and motivate their behavior.

Constraints model looks to be more compatible with the concept of temporal constructed engagement of Emirbayer and Mische while generative model is more in line with the structure based concept from Sewell. From these two typologies of views on structures Mahoney and Snyder suggest that structure can be both constraining and empowering the actors (agency). Thus, they are not infavor of one or the other.

Agency – Structure Interaction

The main problem in understanding the interaction between agency and structure is the nature of their relationship. Is the relationship constitutive or causal or both? If the relationship is causal which one is more as a causal factor than the other? Emirbayer and Mische have clearly rejected the idea that agency and structure are mutually constitutive because they want to define agency from its own internal structure. They proposed a type of relationship called double constitution of agency and structure which means “temporal-relational contexts support particular agentic orientations, which in turn constitute different structuring relationships of actors toward their environments” (Emirbayer and Mische: 1004). This conception, according to them is different from mutually constitutive since the agency “is never so deeply intertwined with every aspect of” the structure (ibid). Mahoney and Snyder, with their integrative approach seem to leave it out to the choice of researchers whether or not to use funnel, path dependent or eclectic strategies in combining the role of agency and structure. They are more concerned with how the conceptual framework could provide analytical tool that include both structure and agency. Sewell seems to embrace the idea that agency is “deeply intertwined with every aspect of the structure.” Sewell’s structure as the source of agency’s empowerment (schema and resources) is compatible with the idea of resources from Galbraith (1983) and Swiddler’s idea on culture as a tool kit (1986). It is not clear however whether these resources/tool kits are the constitutive elements or the causal factors of the human agency.

With regard to the outcome of human agency’s action, what is the nature of the structure’s role/effect? Sewell seems to see it more deterministic than Emirbayer and Mische, while Mahoney and Snyder look it as more situational, depends on the approach that is used. In helping to understand this, the view from critical realist such as Bhaskar (1979) and Lewis (2002) can be useful. They suggest that, although not deterministic to the behavior of human agency, social rules and resources given by structure may exert important influence to social affairs/actions (Lewis, 2002: 20). Structure, in this conception provides material cause while human agency provides efficient cause to the outcome. Material cause provide medium of action for human agency, while human agency is acted as the driving force because of its creative and initiative capacity.

Conclusion: Some Preliminary Lessons for Leadership and Change

Although not specific, the above discussion on several conceptualizations on agency, structure and the relationship between the two have provided some insights on the role of leadership as human agency and change. Clearly, the explanation of social affairs/events cannot be viewed from the perspective which is in favor one and eliminating the other. The discussion from Emirbayer and Mische, Sewell, and Mahoney and Snyder suggests that it is possible that the intensity of human agency’s role will be various from one situation to another. Leader or human agency plays roles in change, but it depends on what kind of structure the human agency encounters and what kind of human agency that is playing the game. A Mahoney and Snyder’s eclectic strategy is one example of this insight.

Although the place for human agency has been provided--at least by the three articles reviewed in this paper, to put leadership as a distinct human agency requires the social scientist to view it as an individual agency. The three articles do not clearly discuss this or give more insight. Sewell only mentions briefly that agency is collective as well as individual (21). But again, his explanation on this tends to put individual to be bound to collectivity. Therefore in an effort to understand leadership as a distinct individual agent the discussion in more literature is needed. Until we can explain that the individual agency can act and make a difference without necessarily bound to collectivity or structure the conceptualization on leader’s agentic nature will always be under criticism. Finally, there is still not much discussion on how to put the issue of personality or personal traits into the debate between structure and agency. This is important because if the leader is conceptualized as individual human agency there must be explanation on why several leaders seem to act differently even in the same structural constraints/empowerments.

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