<![CDATA[Marhaenism has so far been mostly studied as Soekarno's political thought and ideology in the context of history, nationalism, and the people's struggle. This approach is important, but it has not fully explained how Marhaenism works as a symbolic system that connects socio-historical experiences with the formation of meaning and political action. This study aims to analyze (1) how Marhaenism represents the socio-historical experience of the Indonesian people through symbols, (2) how the Marhaenism symbol produces and organizes meaning, and (3) how this symbolic function contributes to the formation of political orientation and action. The study uses a qualitative-philosophical approach through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of a body of literature selected and coded systematically using categories C1–C9. The analysis uses Ernst Cassirer's philosophy of culture, especially the concepts of animal symbolicum and symbolic forms, combined with the perspectives of political culture and symbolic politics. The results show that Marhaenism works through three interconnected symbolic processes. First, symbolic expression transforms the experience of colonialism, poverty, exploitation, and inequality into a collective representation through the "Marhaen" symbol. Second, world-disclosure organizes these experiences into meaning regarding social justice, people's sovereignty, solidarity, and shared life. Third, the practical dimension translates meaning into identity, legitimacy, solidarity, orientation, and political action. This study confirms that the power of Marhaenism lies not only in its ideological content but in its symbolic capacity to transform social experience into meaning and meaning into political action orientation.]]>
