To Reign for the People: Exercising the ‘Democratic Monarchy’ in Yogyakarta

This study addressed the inter-governmental conflict after the central govern-ment promoted decentralization policy to local government. The conflict escalated to the tension between monarchical and western-styled democratic systems. However, it could be argued that the policy has challenged the local politics in Yogyakarta. This paper depicted ‘democratic monarchy’ as the concept which repre-sents the hybrid institution in Yogyakarta. Using constitutionalism, legal pluralism and historical institutionalism, the paper found that the tension was triggered because it disrupted people consciousness of their local tradition. Relevance to Development Studies This paper contributed to enhance the understanding of ‘hybrid institution’ in Yogyakarta which is different with other governance system in the world. The framework focused on the discussion of the establishment of ‘hybrid institu-tion’ in Yogyakarta and the explanation of the local wisdom in maintaining the situation.