The Politics of Development Policy and Development Policy Reform in New Order Indonesia

How can we account for Indonesia’s astonishing development performance between 1965 and 1997—rapid growth, massive reduction in the incidence of poverty, low income-inequality and substantial diversification of the economy—in the face of extremely dirigiste microeconomic policies, even by developing country standards, and massive, systemic and endemic rent-seeking and corruption? This question is answered by demonstrating that Suharto, the leader of Indonesia’s New Order government, was extremely successful in building and sustaining a procapitalist, pro-integration with the world economy, and pro-growth with equity political coalition in which corruption played a central role.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40018/3/wp632.pd

Corruption and Democracy

What is the impact of democracy on corruption? In most models, analysts assume a negative relationship, with more democracy leading to less corruption. But recent theoretical developments and case evidence support an inverted U relationship between corruption and democracy. By drawing on a panel data set covering a large number of countries between 1996 and 2003, substantial empirical support is found for an inverted U relationship between democracy and corruption. The turning point in corruption occurs rather early in the life of new democracies and at rather low per capita incomes.corruption, electoral democracy, consolidated democracy, rule of law, government effectiveness

The Politics of Development Policy and Development Policy Reform in New Order Indonesia

How can we account for Indonesia’s astonishing development performance between 1965 and 1997—rapid growth, massive reduction in the incidence of poverty, low income-inequality and substantial diversification of the economy—in the face of extremely dirigiste microeconomic policies, even by developing country standards, and massive, systemic and endemic rent-seeking and corruption? This question is answered by demonstrating that Suharto, the leader of Indonesia’s New Order government, was extremely successful in building and sustaining a procapitalist, pro-integration with the world economy, and pro-growth with equity political coalition in which corruption played a central role.Suharto, New Order, corruption, Indonesia, development policy, economic reform

Indonesia’s Centripetal Democracy and Economic Growth

What has been the impact of democracy on growth in Indonesia? An early view emphasized a growth and investment slowdown, but more recent data suggest otherwise. What accounts for the reversion to New Order growth and investment rates? My answer is the adoption of more centripetal and developmental democratic institutions in an otherwise messy democracy that has pushed political parties and presidents to compete for votes by promising to clean up government and restore growth

Southeast Asia’s Democratic Developmental States and Economic Growth

How has democracy impacted growth in Southeast Asia? This question can be answered by demonstrating how political elites in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand crafted quite unique democratic developmental states that enabled them to provide the public goods and public policies to maintain high growth. Because of this, growth under democracy has been as high as it was during the heyday of these polities’ developmental autocracies. Moreover, as there was no single dominant pathway to the construction of democratic development in these polities, it looks like political elites were able to take local conditions and history into account suggesting that political elites have been as effective in selectively intervening in the structure of democratic politics as they have been in intervening in the economy

Southeast Asia’s Democratic Developmental States and Economic Growth

How has democracy impacted growth in Southeast Asia? This question can be answered by demonstrating how political elites in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand crafted quite unique democratic developmental states that enabled them to provide the public goods and public policies to maintain high growth. Because of this, growth under democracy has been as high as it was during the heyday of these polities’ developmental autocracies. Moreover, as there was no single dominant pathway to the construction of democratic development in these polities, it looks like political elites were able to take local conditions and history into account suggesting that political elites have been as effective in selectively intervening in the structure of democratic politics as they have been in intervening in the economy

Indonesia’s Centripetal Democracy and Economic Growth

What has been the impact of democracy on growth in Indonesia? An early view emphasized a growth and investment slowdown, but more recent data suggest otherwise. What accounts for the reversion to New Order growth and investment rates? My answer is the adoption of more centripetal and developmental democratic institutions in an otherwise messy democracy that has pushed political parties and presidents to compete for votes by promising to clean up government and restore growth

Factors Influencing Energy Intensity in Four Chinese Industries

In this paper, we investigate the determinants of decline in energy intensity in four Chinese industries - pulp and paper, cement, iron and steel, and aluminum. This paper attempts to answer the following key question: For the purpose of promoting energy efficiency, do prices, technology, enterprise restructuring and other policy-related instruments affect various sectors uniformly so as to justify uniform industrial energy conservation policies, or do different industries respond significantly differently so as to require policies that are tailored to each sector separately? In this paper, we examine this question using data for China\u27s most energy-intensive large and medium-size enterprises over the period 1999-2004. Our results suggest that in all four industries rising energy costs are a significant contributor to the decline in energy intensity over our period of study. China\u27s industrial policies encouraging consolidations and scale economies also seem to have contributed to reductions in energy intensity in these four industries