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POWER AND POLITICAL CULTURE IN SUHARTO'S INDONESIA: THE INDONESIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY (PDI) AND DECLINE OF THE NEW ORDER (1986-98) by Stefan Eklof (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2004)
In political science, political culture is often assumed to be a permanent feature of a society. Eklof argues that this need not be the case and that any analysis based on political culture has to take into account the dynamics of political power and social opposition (however nascent). This perspective would make the predictability of regime collapse more salient. In the case of Indonesia, scholarship has tended to give more intellectual credence to "the authoritarian and militaristic aspects of the regime and its dependency on foreign aid" (p. 11). Hence, when the Suharto regime collapsed, it was indeed a surprise and voices fell silent on arguments using political culture as a basis for regime continuity. Eklof calls for a more flexible approach to regime change rather than a one-dimensional, state-centered view.
One of the main themes of this book relates to state interventions in party politics. The book shows how the Suharto regime intervened in the internal affairs of a political party to shape it in favour of the regimes' objectives. It also gives a vivid account of the fractures between Suharto and the military in managing party politics. For example, Eklof argues that the former military chief Benny Moerdiani's support...