Monitory democracy is closely linked to the emergence of new communications media. In University of Sydney’s political scienctist John Keane’s terms, monitory democracy and computerised media networks behave as if they are conjoined twins, as he firstly suggested in an article published in the Griffith Review. Keane furthemore argues that from the middle of the 20th Century representative democracy began to transform into monitory democracy – a new historical form described by ‘the rapid growth of many different kinds of extra-parliamentary, power-scrutinising mechanisms including advisory boards, focus groups, citizen juries, talk shows, think tanks, consensus conferences, teach‐ins, online petitions and chat rooms, public vigils, straw polls, summits, public planning exercises, public consultations, social forums and, of course, weblogs (Winton Bates, 2012). These inventions have in common is that they change the incentives faced by politicians and political parties. Keane, as cited in Winton Bates, 2012, suggest that the central grip of elections, political parties and parliaments on the lives of citizens is weakening. Democracy is coming to mean more than elections, although nothing less. Within and outside states, independent monitors of power begin to have tangible effects. By putting politicians, parties and elected governments permanently on their toes, they complicate their lives, question their authority and force them to change their agendas.

Having those frameworks in mind, Indonesian general election in 2014 can offer an illustrative case study to see how the concept of monitory democracy is generally viewed and applied in a real political contestation. This special issue tries to explore and discuss in details the above-mentioned Indonesian political phenomenon from a wide array of point of views: political science, sociology, media and communication studies, anthropology, law and so on.

Aims and Scopes: among others, but not restricted to:

1. New Communication Media/Social Media
2. Indonesian Post Reform Era Governments
3. Latest Propaganda Techniques
4. Political Parties
5. Politicians Behavior
6. Scrutinizing mechanisms
7. Media Framing
8. Critical Discourse Analysis
9. Media Behavior Analysis