Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies (ICSSIS 2018)

Middle Class, WhatsApp, and Political Orientation: The Election of North Sumatera Governor, 2018

Authors
Erond L. Damanik
Corresponding Author
Erond L. Damanik
Available Online May 2019.
DOI
10.2991/icssis-18.2019.11How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Middle Class, WhatsApp, Political Orientation, North Sumatera, Governor Election
Abstract

The Middle class is a social position that refers to wealth, education, mastery of science, technology, and access to information. This paper discusses the middle-class political orientation and the use of WhatsApp chat groups in the city of Medan in the election of North Sumatra governor in 2018. The middle class has a central position in the development of democratization. This group reflects the rational and objective character of the political process as a check and balance mechanism in an era of political decentralization. WhatsApp chat groups are used to discuss victorious candidates who are considered to have the same vision and mission as the middle class, namely getting the best regime. To explain this case, the public sphere theory is used with qualitative research methods. This paper aims to explain political orientation and the use of WhatsApp chat groups in the middle class in the city of Medan in the election of the governor of North Sumatra. The results showed that the middle class was co-opted on the understanding of political flow or identity politics through the politicization of religion, ethnicity, village, and Freeman. The middle class as an important part of democratization growth failed to represent itself in the North Sumatra governor's election because of the butterfly effect of the gubernatorial election in 2017.

Copyright
© 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
Open Access
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies (ICSSIS 2018)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
May 2019
ISBN
10.2991/icssis-18.2019.11
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/icssis-18.2019.11How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
Open Access
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Cite this article

TY  - CONF
AU  - Erond L. Damanik
PY  - 2019/05
DA  - 2019/05
TI  - Middle Class, WhatsApp, and Political Orientation: The Election of North Sumatera Governor, 2018
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies (ICSSIS 2018)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 49
EP  - 57
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/icssis-18.2019.11
DO  - 10.2991/icssis-18.2019.11
ID  - Damanik2019/05
ER  -