Founded in 1964 as the Joint Secretariat of Functional Groups (Indonesian: Sekretariat Bersama Golongan Karya, Sekber Golkar), it is the oldest extant political party in Indonesia.

[13][14] In 1959, President Sukarno introduced his concept of Guided Democracy, in which so-called functional groups would play a role in government in place of political parties.

The Indonesian National Armed Forces supported its creation because it believed these groups would balance the growing strength of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI).

In 1960, Sukarno awarded sectoral groups such as teachers, the Armed Forces and the Indonesian National Police, workers and artists seats in the Mutual Cooperation House of Representatives.

In March 1968, General Suharto was officially elected by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) as Indonesia's second president.

Suharto then ordered his closest associate, Ali Murtopo, to transform Golkar and turn it into an electoral machine.

Murtopo claimed that workers were a functional group, which by rights ought to be subsumed under Golkar: "thus all unions were united into a single body answerable to the state.

In order to "Golkar-ize" the nation, Murtopo sometimes used the military and gangs of young thugs to eliminate political competition.

Elections were "exercises in controlled aggression", and were ritualized performances of "choice", in which local authorities were to obey directives about Golkar's electoral results in their area.

A system of rewards, punishments, and violence meted out by thugs helped to guarantee cooperation across the archipelago, and the perpetual reelection of Golkar.

[22] In the same time, elements of the Pancasila Youth that previously supported Golkar formed the Patriot Party led by Yapto Soerjosoemarno.

In July 2001, Golkar, along with its Central Axis allies, held an MPR Special Session to replace President Wahid with Megawati.

Many Indonesians were disappointed with what Reformasi had achieved thus far and were also disillusioned with Megawati's presidency, enabling Golkar to emerge victorious in the 2004 legislative elections with 21% of the votes.

The first round was won by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla who faced Megawati and Hasyim Muzadi in the September 2004 run-off.

Fahmi Idris led a group of Golkar members in defecting and threw their support behind Yudhoyono and Kalla.

With a National Congress to be held in December 2004, Yudhoyono and Kalla had originally backed Head of DPR Agung Laksono to become Golkar chairman.

When Agung was perceived to be too weak to run against Akbar, Yudhoyono and Kalla threw their weight behind Surya Paloh.

Up to that point, Yudhoyono had not let members of his administration hold a concurrent position in political parties to prevent the possible abuse of power.

There were also complaints by Wiranto who claimed that some months earlier, Yudhoyono had promised to support him if he ran for the Golkar chairmanship.

Kalla's new appointment as chairman of Golkar significantly strengthened Yudhoyono's government in Parliament and left the PDI-P as the only major opposition party in the DPR.

After being eliminated in the first round of the 2004 Indonesian presidential election, Wiranto was "traumatized" by his defeat and decided not to run for the presidency without his own political vehicle.

[25] At the 2009 Congress, held in Pekanbaru, Aburizal Bakrie was elected chairman, winning 269 out of 583 votes, and beating Surya Paloh into second place.

In early March 2015, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia issued a decree legalizing Golkar led by Agung Laksono.

On 10 July 2015, the four judges who heard the case, namely Arif Nurdu'a, Didik Andy Prastowo, Nurnaeni Manurung and Diah Yulidar decided to reject the lawsuit filed by the General Chair of the Golongan Karya Party resulting from the Bali National Conference, Aburizal Bakrie, regarding the dualism of party management.

[26][27] However, in October 2015, the Supreme Court granted the appeal filed by Golkar as a result of the Bali National Conference led by Aburizal Bakrie.

This leadership dualism began to end when an agreement was reached for reconciliation led by the former General Chair of Golkar and Vice President Jusuf Kalla in early 2016.

This leadership dualism officially ended on 17 May 2016 when Setya Novanto was elected as the new General Chair of the Golongan Karya Party[28] during the Golkar National Conference in Nusa Dua, Bali.

Setya Novanto then announced that Golkar was now supporting the government of Joko Widodo despite backed his rival Prabowo Subianto in the 2014 presidential election.

[30] Despite securing second place, the election result shows the worst performance for Golkar throughout its electoral participation since 1971, with only 85 seats while finishing third in popular vote with only 12,1%.

[36] Internally, Airlangga also worked to solidify the party base after a period of conflict between Bakrie and Laksono while continuing the consolidation process which were halted when Novanto was indicted for corruption.