Umumnya pengukuran demokrasi bersifat global dan lintas negara, padahal demokrasi lokal tak kalah menarik diamati. Indonesia mengembangkan Indeks Demokrasi Indonesia (IDI) mengukur dinamika demokrasi lokal berbasis provinsi. Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB) adalah provinsi dengan capaian demokrasi terburuk (2009-2014), ditandai oleh banyaknya kejadian yang melanggar kebebasan sipil, aksi kekerasan massa, tidak maksimalnya peran DPRD, serta macetnya kaderisasi partai politik. Penelitian ini mengajukan pertanyaan pokok: Mengapa kondisi demokrasi  Provinsi NTB pada tahun 2009-2014 relatif buruk? Studi ini merupakan pendalaman IDI melalui pengumpulan dan analisis data sekunder serta wawancara mendalam, difokuskan di tiga kabupaten/kota dengan tingkat kasus kekerasan tertinggi: Kabupaten Bima, Kabupaten Dompu, dan Kota Mataram. Temuan penting studi ini, era otonomisasi memberi keleluasaan yang sangat luas kepada pemerintah daerah mewakili aktor negara dalam memunculkan berbagai pengaturan ekstensif yang mengatur kehidupan beragama sehingga mengancam kebebasan sipil. Banyaknya kasus kekerasan dan tindakan main hakim sendiri menunjukkan keadaban sipil dan budaya politik belum tumbuh baik di masyarakat. Padahal, keadaban sipil dan budaya politik adalah fondasi penting yang diperlukan dalam membangun demokrasi. DPRD sebagai lembaga demokrasi lokal tidak berperan maksimal dalam menjalankan peran dan fungsi pokoknya dalam hal legislasi, penganggaran, dan pengawasan, selain keterwakilan perempuan di DPRD yang rendah. Partai politik lokal tidak berhasil menjalankan kaderisasi sebagai fungsi tradisionalnya yang penting.

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Usually, the measurement of democracy is conducted in a global context and involves cross-country comparisons. In fact, local democracy can also become an interesting object of study. This research examines the Indonesia Democracy Index (IDI) as a province-based local democracy measurement. West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) has been chosen a focus of this research because in the period of 2009-2014, it is the country’s province with poorest democratic achievements, which were marked by a high number of challenges to civil liberties, incidents of mass violence, weak of DPRD’s role, and the stalled regeneration of local political parties. This is an advance of the study of IDI through the collection and analysis of secondary data and in-depth interviews, focused on the three districts/cities with the highest levels case of violence, namely: Bima District, Dompu District, and Mataram City. The key finding of this study is: The regional autonomy era in Indonesia has pushed forward an extensive religious life control, which tends to be discriminatory and contradicts the principles of democracy. The number of cases of violence and vigilantism shows that civil virtues and political culture have not grown well in the society. In fact, these are important foundations needed in building democracy. DPRD does not play a maximum role in carrying out its main roles and functions in terms of legislation, budgeting, and supervision. In addition to the low representation of women in DPRD. Local political parties have not succeeded in carrying out regeneration as their important traditional function.