The Political Economy of Indonesian Economic Reforms: 1983-2000

This paper investigates the political economy behind the three economic reforms in Indonesia, in 1983-91, 1994-97 and the reform under the IMF umbrella immediately after the 1997-98 economic crisis. The prevailing belief is that the Indonesian political economy scenario during those periods closely matched that of Weberian patrimonialism, in which the patron-client system was managed personally by Soeharto. Our findings indicate that, whereas economic reform was possible within the patron-client system in the initial stages of economic reform, this was not the case in later stages.