Book Review: Indonesia: Twenty Years of Democracy

Writing both succinctly and comprehensively about the rise, achievements, and challenges of Indonesian democracy since 1998 is difficult. Most scholars have opted for extensive books or focused on special themes or regions. Jamie Davidson has made an admirable effort in less than eighty accessible pages in a new series titled Cambridge Elements, which aims to combine “up-to-date overview of debates in the scholarly literature with original analysis and a clear argument”. He focuses on politics, political economy, identity-based mobilisation, and arrives at three major conclusions.