Political Arena: Construction and Legitimation of Green Political Capital
Keywords:
Political capital; Environmental politics; Political legitimacy; Political arena; Political trustAbstract
Environmental issues and green politics, once considered merely technical issues, have now become political capital that determines the direction of public support in power contests. This study aims to analyse how Green Political Capital is constructed, mobilised, and translated into political legitimacy and support through candidates’ strategies, narratives, and communication practices. The method is qualitative, with a case study of the 2024 Indonesian presidential election. Data collection through observation and documentation of campaign materials and public debates, analysed using NVivo 12 Plus and interpreted through Pierre Bourdieu’s arena and capital theory framework. This study finds that the construction of Green Political Capital in the 2024 Indonesian Presidential Election is fragmented into three main models: normative transformative, instrumental developmentalist, and technocratic reformist, reflecting ideological differences in how environmental issues are positioned as a moral foundation, an instrument of economic growth, or part of governance reform. The effectiveness of converting green capital into public support is largely determined by the integration of three dimensions of legitimacy: symbolic, through narrative consistency and moral resonance; performance, through policy alignment and tangible impacts; and socio-relational, through civil society support and the reproduction of trust in social networks. In conclusion, Green Political Capital becomes an effective political resource only when it consistently combines ethical narratives, development rationality, and institutional capacity to gain authentic public recognition in the arena of power contestation.
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