Party Politics and Democratization in Indonesia

Dirk Tomsa is an Associate lecturer at the University of Tasmania, Australia. He holds a joint appointment in the School of Asian Languages and Studies and the School of Government.

• 1. Introduction: The Remarkable Resilience of Golkar  2. Theoretical Reflections: Protracted Transitions, Uneven Party Institutionalization and the Special Role of Former Hegemonic Parties  3. Systemness: Deconstructing the Myth of Golkar’s Party Machinery   4. Decisional Autonomy: The Main Problems Lurk Inside the Party  5. Value Infusion: In Search of Golkar’s Roots  6. Party Reification: Mastering the Use of Symbols and the Pitfalls of Political Communication  7. Gauging Uneven Party Institutionalization: How Strong are the Others?  8. Conclusion and Outlook: Uneven Party Institutionalization and the Future of Democracy in Indonesia

'This book is a meticulous endeavor by Dirk Tomsa to explain how GOLKAR has managed to survive and even thrive in a free and fair electoral democracy.' - Benny Subianto, Contemporary Southeast Asia, April 2009"Recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections." - CHOICE, May 2009 Vol. 46 No. 09"For academics and students alike, this is an important and indepth contribution to the increasingly influential literature on party institutionalization. It gives the reader a fine-grained account of the complex dynamics at play both within and between political parties in Indonesia. The key statistical matrix in the conclusion also makes for a useful quick referent...Overall, Tomsa provides us with an orderly and empirically accurate basis to generate discussion on the dynamics of Indonesia’s post-authoritarian settlement and highlights the need for dialogue with proponents of social conflict theory."- Paul J. Carnegie, Pacific Affairs: Volume 83, No. 1 – March 2010