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Oligarchy and the End of Reformasi in Indonesia
418 pages, Paperback
Published June 22, 2026
About the author
Vedi R. Hadiz
15 books8 followersVedi Hadiz is Professor of Asian Studies and Director of the Asia Institute and an Assistant Deputy Vice-Chancellor International, University of Melbourne, where he is also a Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor. He was previously Professor of Asian Societies and Politics at Murdoch University’s Asia Research Centre and Director of its Indonesia Research Programme.
An Indonesian national, he was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in 2010-2014. Professor Hadiz received his PhD at Murdoch University in 1996 where he was Research Fellow until he went to the National University of Singapore in 2000. At NUS, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology until returning to Murdoch in 2010. His research interests revolve around political sociology and political economy issues, especially those related to the contradictions of development in Indonesia and Southeast Asia more broadly, and more recently, in the Middle East.
He is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia
Professor Hadiz’s latest book is entitled Islamic Populism in Indonesia and the Middle East (Cambridge University Press 2016). His other books include Localising Power in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia: A Southeast Asia Perspective (Stanford University Press 2010), Workers and the State in New Order Indonesia (Routledge 1997) and (with Richard Robison) Reorganising Power in Indonesia: The Politics of Oligarchy in an Age of Markets (RoutledgeCurzon 2004,), as well as the co-edited Between Dissent and Power: The Transformation of Islamic Politics in the Middle East and Asia (Palgrave Macmillan 2014) and the edited Empire and Neoliberalism in Asia (Routledge 2004). His articles have appeared in such journals as Development and Change, New Political Economy, International Political Science Review, Democratization, Journal of Development Studies, Pacific Review, Pacific Affairs, Third World Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Critical Asian Studies, Indonesia, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies and Historical Materialism.
Professor Hadiz has been a visiting scholar in the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in France, the International Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands, the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Kyoto, the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi and the Department of Sociology at the University of Indonesia, where he is also an Adjunct Professor.
An Indonesian national, he was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in 2010-2014. Professor Hadiz received his PhD at Murdoch University in 1996 where he was Research Fellow until he went to the National University of Singapore in 2000. At NUS, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology until returning to Murdoch in 2010. His research interests revolve around political sociology and political economy issues, especially those related to the contradictions of development in Indonesia and Southeast Asia more broadly, and more recently, in the Middle East.
He is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia
Professor Hadiz’s latest book is entitled Islamic Populism in Indonesia and the Middle East (Cambridge University Press 2016). His other books include Localising Power in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia: A Southeast Asia Perspective (Stanford University Press 2010), Workers and the State in New Order Indonesia (Routledge 1997) and (with Richard Robison) Reorganising Power in Indonesia: The Politics of Oligarchy in an Age of Markets (RoutledgeCurzon 2004,), as well as the co-edited Between Dissent and Power: The Transformation of Islamic Politics in the Middle East and Asia (Palgrave Macmillan 2014) and the edited Empire and Neoliberalism in Asia (Routledge 2004). His articles have appeared in such journals as Development and Change, New Political Economy, International Political Science Review, Democratization, Journal of Development Studies, Pacific Review, Pacific Affairs, Third World Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Critical Asian Studies, Indonesia, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies and Historical Materialism.
Professor Hadiz has been a visiting scholar in the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in France, the International Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands, the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Kyoto, the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi and the Department of Sociology at the University of Indonesia, where he is also an Adjunct Professor.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 27, 2026
For those interested in Indonesian politics and business for work or interest, this is the first book I would recommend.
It has three great advantages. The first is that it provides an excellent literature review of politics, business, and capitalism across the Soeharto period to the present. The second is that it is dizzyingly comprehensive, updated up to 2024. Its coverage of how the Asian Financial Crisis and the Fall of Soeharto happened is particularly strong. The last is that it is largely well-written, especially for a text about economic relations. Though, there are some fairly noticeable editing deficiencies in Part V - for instance, "Soeharto ethnic Chinese-owned family conglomerates established in the Soeharto era".
Certainly, this book does have limitations. It is clear that Hadiz and Robison have not received rigorous historical training. Their narration of cause and effect is chronologically loose - particularly bad in Part III where they jump back and forth between the 1980s and 1990s trying to show patterns and structures. Relatedly, their analysis of specific actors comes off as fairly weak and incomplete. For instance, the narration of Benny Moerdani as a sort of reformist rationalist military figure in the tradition of Petisi 50 (whose removal from power initiated new heights of personalistic patronage) obscures the fact that Moerdani's very appointment was based on hierarchy-breaking patronage and one of his first notable assignments was suppressing Petisi 50. It is thus difficult to take the book's causal explanations of any one event particularly seriously - especially in the face of competing explanations.
As a broad narration of oligarchy in Indonesia, however, as well as an argument of why this oligarchy has been highly resilient despite the Financial Crisis and subsequent reform efforts from international financial institutions, this book does well. At least for this reader, it is not quite persuasive enough to "win" any of the debates it steps into, but it definitely carves out a school of thought that needs to be engaged with.
It has three great advantages. The first is that it provides an excellent literature review of politics, business, and capitalism across the Soeharto period to the present. The second is that it is dizzyingly comprehensive, updated up to 2024. Its coverage of how the Asian Financial Crisis and the Fall of Soeharto happened is particularly strong. The last is that it is largely well-written, especially for a text about economic relations. Though, there are some fairly noticeable editing deficiencies in Part V - for instance, "Soeharto ethnic Chinese-owned family conglomerates established in the Soeharto era".
Certainly, this book does have limitations. It is clear that Hadiz and Robison have not received rigorous historical training. Their narration of cause and effect is chronologically loose - particularly bad in Part III where they jump back and forth between the 1980s and 1990s trying to show patterns and structures. Relatedly, their analysis of specific actors comes off as fairly weak and incomplete. For instance, the narration of Benny Moerdani as a sort of reformist rationalist military figure in the tradition of Petisi 50 (whose removal from power initiated new heights of personalistic patronage) obscures the fact that Moerdani's very appointment was based on hierarchy-breaking patronage and one of his first notable assignments was suppressing Petisi 50. It is thus difficult to take the book's causal explanations of any one event particularly seriously - especially in the face of competing explanations.
As a broad narration of oligarchy in Indonesia, however, as well as an argument of why this oligarchy has been highly resilient despite the Financial Crisis and subsequent reform efforts from international financial institutions, this book does well. At least for this reader, it is not quite persuasive enough to "win" any of the debates it steps into, but it definitely carves out a school of thought that needs to be engaged with.
Displaying 1 of 1 review