The Centre for Democratic Institutions (CDI) at the ANU has just released a new Policy Paper on Political Governance titled Comparing Across Regions: Parties and Political Systems in Indonesia and the Pacific Islands (CDI PPS 2013/02). The authors, Prof. Jon Fraenkel and Prof. Edward Aspinall, seek to identify patterns of similarity and difference in political competition in Indonesia and the Pacific Islands through a survey of five major factors shaping the nature of the party systems in the two regions:
- broad context (size, geography and economic prosperity);
- the role of electoral systems and the rules governing parties;
- ethnic and religious identities;
- ideological issues or their absence; and
- how patronage shapes political allegiances.
“Despite obvious differences, the authors find some similar patterns of loose and fluid political party allegiances at the local level.” The authors will give a public lecture related to their research on 3 April 2013 [read more about this event].
