An Integrative-Participative Model for Strengthening National Knowledge and Political Education to Cadres and Constituents of Political Parties

Abstract

Today, national knowledge (concept) for Indonesians seems relatively decreasing, including for politicians. The relations between political parties and their constituents is becoming greater because in the political life, peoples always support a political party and hope that the political party can accommodate their aspirations to fulfill their need and improve lives. In local, regional and national elections, the conflicts often happen among political party their supporters and it shows a relative low political education among them. Based on this phenomenon, it is interesting to study: First, how is the national knowledge of political party’s cadres and constituents? Second, how is the political education for the cadres and constituents? From the study in Indonesia, in East Java province, we found that the national knowledge and political education for political party’s cadres and constituents are not optimal. Their knowledge about politics is still limited and more pragmatism. It is caused by the lack of political education from the political party. Based on these findings, we develop a solution to solve those problems by strengthening national knowledge and political education using the integrative-participative model.

Keywords: integrative-participative model, political education, national knowledge, political consciousness.