By any indicator, Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation on earth, is a development success story. Yet 20 years after a deep economic and political crisis, it is still in some respects an economy in transition. The country recovered from the 1997–98 crisis and navigated the path from authoritarian to democratic rule surprisingly quickly and smoothly. It survived the 2008–09 global financial crisis and the end of the China-driven commodity super boom in 2014 with little difficulty. It is now embarking on its fifth round of credible national elections in the democratic era. It is in the process of graduating to the upper middle-income ranks. But, as the 25 contributors to this comprehensive and compelling volume document, Indonesia also faces many daunting challenges — how to achieve faster economic growth along with more attention to environment sustainability, how to achieve more equitable development outcomes, how to develop and nurture stronger institutional foundations, and much else. “This is a timely and much-needed book. There are very few recent books on Indonesia with such a comprehensive analysis of not just mainstream economic policies, but also most importantly the key issues of human capital, inequality, social welfare, labour, food security and natural resource management. This book will not only be crucial for policy discourse but for all stakeholders who care about Indonesia making the transition not only to a high-income economy, but an inclusive one.” — Mari Pangestu, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia “The Indonesian Economy in Transition: Policy Challenges in the Jokowi Era and Beyond is one of the most important books that discusses the Indonesian economy post–Asian Financial Crisis. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand contemporary Indonesian economy.” — M. Chatib Basri, former Minister of Finance of Indonesia

In this timely work, leading scholars analyze the causes of the social, political, and economic crises that erupted in Indonesia in the late 1990s, the responses of the elite and civil society, and the prospects for continuing reform. In the process, they explore such issues as the relevance of the nation-state in an age of globalization, the role of Islam in politics and violence, the strengths and weaknesses of a negotiated route to democratic governance, the relationship of corruption and structural reform to economic growth, and the prospects for stability in Southeast Asia. The first book to grapple with the scale and complexity of this historic transition, this work offers a clear and compelling introduction to the Indonesian experience for students with an interest in the problems of post-colonial states, to scholars in comparative Asian studies, and to anyone seeking a serious yet accessible introduction to the world's largest Islamic democracy. A Study of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

Few countries have experienced such sharply fluctuating fortunes as Indonesia. This book offers a balanced analysis, evaluation and explanation of Indonesia's economic performance, from 1967. Hal Hill highlights Indonesia's successes during this period - rapid industrialisation, major achievements in the food crop sector and the adoption, from the mid-1980s, of outward-looking policies. He also draws attention to the challenges facing the country, including the rocky path towards economic reform, the large external debt, regional and ethnic disparities, and the need for a transparent and predictable policy environment. In this second edition, an extended postscript takes the story through the dramatic turnaround and political and economic crises since 1997, including the downfall of Soeharto.

Surveys in detail the most significant problems now facing Indonesia, raises vital issues for further investigation, and analyzes the results of the 1999 election.

Indonesia remains a country in transition even now, some two decades after its extraordinary shift from authoritarianism to democracy and from economic crisis to a rapidly growing economy. What explains the trajectory of that shift? What challenges does this island nation of 270 million people - with the world's largest Muslim population - face now, as the quality of democratic life erodes and it grapples with profound social and economic inequalities? Addressing these questions, the authors comprehensively explore the dynamics of Indonesia's politics, society, political economy, and culture, as well as its role in the international order.

Globalisation is more complex than ever. The effects of the global financial crisis and increased inequality have spurred anti-globalisation sentiment in many countries and encouraged the adoption of populist and inward-looking policies. This has led to some surprising results: Duterte, Brexit and Trump, to name a few. In Indonesia, the disappointment with globalisation has led to rising protectionism, a rejection of foreign interference in the name of nationalism, and economic policies dominated by calls for self-sufficiency. Meanwhile, human trafficking and the abuse of migrant workers show the dark side of globalisation. In this volume, leading experts explore key issues around globalisation, nationalism and sovereignty in Indonesia. Topics include the history of Indonesia’s engagement with the world, Indonesia’s stance on the South China Sea and the re-emergence of nationalism. The book also examines the impact of globalisation on poverty and inequality, labour markets and people, especially women.

This book examines the dynamics shaping the economic process of economic liberalisation in Indonesia since the mid-1980's. Much writing on the process of economic liberalisation in developing countries views economic liberalisation as the victory of economic rationality over political and social interests. In contrast, this book argues that economic liberalisation should not be understood in these terms, but rather in the way that political social interests shape processes of economic reform in both a positive and negative sense. Specifically, Rosser argues that economic liberalisation needs to be understood in terms of the extent to which economic crises shift the balance of power and influence within society away from coalitions opposed to reform and towards those in favour of reform. In the Indonesian context, the main coalitions that need to be examined in this respect are the politico-bureaucrats and the conglomerates who have generally opposed reform and mobile capitalists who have generally supported reform. Based on extensive original research, and providing much new material, the book considers the politics of economic policy-making in Indonesia in a range of sectors including the capital market, intellectual property law, the banking industry, and the trade and investment sectors. Analysing why the nature of economic policy in Indonesia has varied over time, this study argues that there is nothing inevitable about a transition to a fully-fledged liberal market order in Indonesia, and outlines possible future scenarios for the country's political economy.

History matters. At the beginning of a new century and amidst the turmoil of a new democracy, a historical perspective on modern Indonesia is needed more than ever. This innovative economic history connects back to the colonial era and helps to explain why the transition from colonialism to Independence and from the New Order to democracy has been so difficult and sometimes traumatic. The Emergence of a National Economy identitifies three grand themes in this transformation: globalisation, state formation and economic integration. Globalisation affected the Indonesian archipelago even before the arrival of the Dutch—the New Order experience was only the most recent wave. Modern state formation began in Java under Governor-General Daendels (1808-11) and culminated in the centralised, military-bureaucratic state of Soeharto's New Order (1966-98). A national economy emerged gradually from the 1930s as the Outer Islands were reoriented towards an industrialising Java. These three themes link chronological chapters from the pre 1800 period through the modern colonial era to the breakdown of the colonial system after 1930, the birth of modern Indonesia, the remarkable economic transformation under the New Order, and the 'meltdown' during the Asian crisis of 1997/98. This overarching story gives a unity and rythm to Indonesia's modern history, while helping to explain why the future is likely to be different. The four authors—senior scholars from Australia (Howard Dick), Germany (Vincent Houben), the Netherlands (Thomas Lindblad) and Indonesia (Thee Kian Wie)—draw on a very wide range of sources to combine the insights of history, economic history and economics.

The story of how oil--and oil money--transformed political life in two major producer-nations

There are reasons for thinking that this is at last Indonesia's moment on the world stage. Having successfully negotiated its difficult transition to democracy after 1998, Indonesia has held three popular elections with a low level of violence by the standards of southern Asia. Recetly its economic growth rate has been high (above 6 per cent a year) and rising, where China's has been dropping and the developed world has been in crisis. Indonesia's admission in 2009 to the G20 club of the world's most influential states seemed to confirm a status implied by its size, as the world's fourth-largest country by population, and the largest with a Muslim majority. Some international pundits have been declaring that Indonesia is the new star to watch, and that its long-awaited moment in the sun may at last have arrived.