Southeast Asia's strongest democracy, and one of the few liberal democracies in the Muslim world, Indonesia is providing fertile grounds for great political science. Efforts to engineer Indonesia's party system and decentralize power have led to several particularly insightful studies of subnational politics. Ehito Kimura's Political Change and Territoriality in Indonesia: Provincial Proliferation provides a major contribution, studying not just the politics of subnational units but the politics of their creation. Indonesia has seen a proliferation of provinces and districts, known as blossoming (pemekaran). Political scientists interested in Indonesia have been waiting for a book-length account of this process and this book goes far in filling this gap.
Kimura's core point is compelling. The birth of new provinces requires co-operation between national political actors and would-be provincial elites, what Kimura refers to as “territorial alliances.” He argues against and indeed amalgamates common views that new administrative units are the results of national political machinations or corrupt local elites. This is a convincing, satisfying approach that emphasizes politics in changing territoriality. Kimura also explains the conditions in which territorial alliances are formed. Put simply, horizontal competition necessitates vertical alliances. When political leaders face electoral competition, they look above and below their position for help, and these alliances help to explain how national leaders can support subnational elites in creating new administrative units. This core insight helps to explain variation over time. We are reminded that Indonesia witnessed provincial proliferation once before, in the 1950s at a time of relative openness. During the New Order, new provinces were rare because horizontal competition was stunted. Instead of calls for new provinces, Suharto's rule generated demands for new countries, as regional elites left outside of the state fought to leave it. The reintroduction of democratic competition after 1999 has exerted a centripetal force, enmeshing subnational elites within vertical political alliances.
Despite these great strengths, Political Change and Territoriality in Indonesia will not totally satisfy those familiar with the Indonesian case. The most striking omission relates to district proliferation. While the number of provinces has grown from 27 to 33, the number of districts has grown from 292 to 500, and decentralization has bypassed provinces to endow district-level governments. It is puzzling that a book on administrative proliferation would be limited to provinces. Kimura responds to this criticism by noting that provinces still matter (7). But the reader is left wondering if the same forces at play in creating provinces are really the same ones creating districts. While the book features brief outward comparisons to India and Nigeria, it would be useful to have included some discussion, and perhaps a chapter, looking downwards at districts.
A related point is methodological. Kimura offers valuable case studies of the birth of three new provinces: Gorontalo, the Riau Archipelago and West Irian. He is careful to acknowledge variation among these cases, with Gorontalo being more of an ethno-religious story, Riau being about loyalty and divergent forms of development and West Irian being driven by security concerns. The common factor, says Kimura, is territorial alliances. However, without variation, this is not entirely satisfying. It would have been useful to include failed cases such as Aceh Leuser Antara or Tapanuli, also-rans which have also featured territorial coalitions as well as security and ethno-religious logics. It remains unclear why some new provinces become realities, while others do not. One possibility is timing: successful cases had early demands for changed boundaries, while many failed cases gained momentum only later, after the window of opportunity had closed.
In terms of smaller quibbles, Kimura frequently refers to the “local level,” positioned alongside national and provincial levels. In an otherwise carefully worded study, the term “local” is not useful. Kimura often means district-level, but this is not always clear. “Local” seems better suited to village or sub-district units. In terms of empirics, Kimura explains that in Aceh, the New Order promoted ethnic Javanese and marginalized Acehnese officials. This broad characterization cannot stand up to scrutiny, as Aceh's New Order was heavily ethnic Acehnese and its technocrats were Islamic administrators, many of whom were veterans of the Darul Islam Rebellion.
A final critique relates to the book's theoretical approach. Chapter 2 engages theories linking territoriality and identity. Though interesting, this speaks to mass sentiment, while the book's empirics are decidedly elite-centric (though multi-tiered). Theories related to separatism or clientelism might be more helpful in supporting his empirical findings. Clientelism and corruption are part of Kimura's approach, but he may understate the naked economic interests at play.
Political Change and Territoriality in Indonesia will be appreciated by scholars interested in Southeast Asian politics as well as administrative reform and federalism more broadly. Although not the final word on Indonesia's administrative blossoming, it is an authoritative study with much to offer.
