Localising Power in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia: A Southeast Asia Perspective

by Vedi R. Hadiz

This book is about how the design of institutional change results in unintended consequences. Many post-authoritarian societies have adopted decentralization―effectively localizing power―as part and parcel of democratization, but also in their efforts to entrench "good governance." Vedi Hadiz shifts the attention to the accompanying tensions and contradictions that define the terms under which the localization of power actually takes place. In the process, he develops a compelling analysis that ties social and institutional change to the outcomes of social conflict in local arenas of power. Using the case of Indonesia, and comparing it with Thailand and the Philippines, Hadiz seeks to understand the seeming puzzle of how local predatory systems of power remain resilient in the face of international and domestic pressures. Forcefully persuasive and characteristically passionate, Hadiz challenges readers while arguing convincingly that local power and politics still matter greatly in our globalized world.

Genres: Politics

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Vedi Hadiz is Professor of Asian Studies and Director of the Asia Institute and an Assistant Deputy Vice-Chancellor International, University of Melbourne, where he is also a Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor. He was previously Professor of Asian Societies and Politics at Murdoch University’s Asia Research Centre and Director of its Indonesia Research Programme.

An Indonesian national, he was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in 2010-2014. Professor Hadiz received his PhD at Murdoch University in 1996 where he was Research Fellow until he went to the National University of Singapore in 2000. At NUS, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology until returning to Murdoch in 2010. His research interests revolve around political sociology and political economy issues, especially those related to the contradictions of development in Indonesia and Southeast Asia more broadly, and more recently, in the Middle East.

He is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia

Professor Hadiz’s latest book is entitled Islamic Populism in Indonesia and the Middle East (Cambridge University Press 2016). His other books include Localising Power in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia: A Southeast Asia Perspective (Stanford University Press 2010), Workers and the State in New Order Indonesia (Routledge 1997) and (with Richard Robison) Reorganising Power in Indonesia: The Politics of Oligarchy in an Age of Markets (RoutledgeCurzon 2004,), as well as the co-edited Between Dissent and Power: The Transformation of Islamic Politics in the Middle East and Asia (Palgrave Macmillan 2014) and the edited Empire and Neoliberalism in Asia (Routledge 2004). His articles have appeared in such journals as Development and Change, New Political Economy, International Political Science Review, Democratization, Journal of Development Studies, Pacific Review, Pacific Affairs, Third World Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Critical Asian Studies, Indonesia, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies and Historical Materialism.

Professor Hadiz has been a visiting scholar in the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in France, the International Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands, the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Kyoto, the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi and the Department of Sociology at the University of Indonesia, where he is also an Adjunct Professor.

Reviews

[Ahmad Kurnia · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Orang-orang hanya akan memilih 'mafia-mafia' yang berbeda" (h. 194)

Menarik. Desentralisasi yang dianggap sebagai anak emas demokrasi, yang diharapkan mampu mencipta akuntabilitas lembaga dan pelibatan aspirasi rakyat dalam pembuatan kebijakan, justru tak demikian yang ada di lapangan.

Hadiz seolah ingin menunjukkan bahwa desentralisasi tak lebih dari pemindahan "arena tinju" perebutan sumber daya dari pusat ke daerah. Khusus Indonesia, desentralisasi hanya mampu menjawab tantangan akan keterpecahan bangsa, tidak dengan masalah serius lainnya, seperti KKN.

Buku ini penting untuk di baca, setidaknya ini menjadi perwakilan dari apa yang dikeluhkan Hadiz sendiri bahwa intelektual Indonesia sebagian besar tidak memiliki "kaki-tangan" yang bisa memengaruhi masyarakat menjadi lebih baik (dalam politik elektoral). Sehingga, buku ini menjadi "kaki-tangan"nya dalam mendidik (politik) masyarakat.

[Aisyah Rama · Rating 4 out of 5]

kagok bagaimana jawa timur ternyata sudah menjadi sarang maslaah bahkan dari sebelum orde baru tumbang

[Dede Muhammad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnum opus dari Vedi Hadiz dkk mengenai dinamika otonomi daerah pasca orba, buku ini juga memberikan gambaran bagaimana otonomi mengubah lanskap politik di daerah-daerah.

[kaylanurul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book captures the nature of political power being decentralized and how it changed the face of local politics. The new bosses come political scene and they capture the interest of the public as their own. Yet, it despise the importance of violence in elections which actually concern many, including myself. Still, I recommend this book for any of you who want to know more about Indonesian local politics and its political-economy dynamics

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most theoretically sophisticated and empirically-rich books on decentralization I have read.