<![CDATA[Procedural democracy in Indonesia is often understood merely as fulfilling legal-formal requirements such as elections, while substantive aspects like justice, leadership ethics, and meaningful participation are frequently overlooked. Local communities, however, possess their own sources of ethical values and deliberative mechanisms, such as syura in Islamic politics and Karo customary traditions, which may fill this normative gap. This study aims to analyze how deliberative democratic practice in Kutalimbaru Village is shaped through the interaction between the community's understanding of democracy, the principle of syura in Islamic politics, and the role of Karo customary law through the Rakut Sitelu structure. The study employs a qualitative method with a descriptive approach. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with religious leaders, customary leaders, the village head, and community members, complemented by observation and documentation, then analyzed through data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing, with source triangulation to ensure validity. The findings show that the people of Kutalimbaru Village understand democracy as freedom of expression bounded by social responsibility. Syura functions as an ethical foundation emphasizing justice, trustworthiness (amanah), and rejection of money politics as a condition for decision legitimacy. Meanwhile, Karo customary law, through Rakut Sitelu, serves as a social institution that operationalizes deliberation and grants social legitimacy to collective decisions. These three elements do not stand independently but reinforce one another, making deliberative democracy in Kutalimbaru Village contextual and grounded in religious and local cultural values.]]>
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