Criminal Records as Political Capital: Renegotiating Ex-Convict Labels to Acquire Village Head Positions in East Java, Indonesia

Unlike other new democracies, the political system in post-authoritarian Indonesia has recently allowed ex-convicts to run for election. This qualitative case study examines how ex-prisoners serving as village heads in Probolinggo Regency, East Java, discursively reframed their criminal past as informal symbolic capital to win rural political contestations and effectively execute village bureaucratic functions. Contrary to previous analyses highlighting collateral consequences that disqualify ex-criminals’ political prospects, we report that interactive dialogue has successfully turned negative reputations into collectively consented territorial patronage, specifically within crime-prone village contexts. Through persuasive discursive means, this can then be leveraged to mobilize voters’ political support through deliberative consensus. The ex-prisoner solidarity network (Fosil Maharana) also reshapes villagers’ stereotypes by destigmatizing criminal labels to support the ex-convicts’ victory in the village head election. The findings contribute to the broader informality framework in socio-political fields founded on discursive rationality, post-authoritarian local democracy, and political restoration policy, which are also discussed.