The Relative Autonomy of the Third World Politician: Soeharto and Indonesian Economic Development in Comparative Perspective

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Abstract
On three occasions since the mid-1960s, the government of President Soeharto has made major policy decisions that have liberalized Indonesia's economy. These policy decisions are explained as voluntary or autonomous choices reflecting Soeharto's calculations of the political costs and benefits to his continued rule. The choices are set in a context of four conditioning variables: economic crisis, international economic forces, culture, and regime type. This approach is juxtaposed to other popular explanations of Indonesian and Third World policy making, particularly patrimonialism, statism, and culturalism. Patrimonialism is shown in the Indonesian case not to be incompatible with the adoption of neoclassical economic policies. State-centered theories are criticized for too high a level of aggregation and for a lack of empirical fit. The standard cultural approach fails to explain why liberal policies were chosen despite an illiberal culture. A more complex view of culture—conceived as commodious, flexible, living, not a dead weight smothering policy initiative—is offered as an alternative.

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