List of abbreviations; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. How state elites mediate the influence of Islamist activists in Indonesia; 2. Islamist activism, the state and shari'a policymaking between 1945 and 1998; 3. State elites and institutional change; 4. The accumulation and exercise of power in local politics after 1998; 5. Islamist parties after 1998: mobilization without influence; 6. The mobilization and lobbying efforts of Islamist movements after 1998; 7. Providing political resources in exchange for the adoption of shari'a regulations; 8. Conclusion: summary of findings and avenues for future research; Appendix 1; Appendix 2; Appendix 3; Bibliography; Index.
An original and timely exploration of the continuing Islamization of Indonesian politics despite the electoral decline of Islamist parties.
Michael Buehler is a Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics in the Department of Politics and International Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Specializing in Southeast Asian politics, his teaching and research interests evolve around state-society relations under conditions of democratization and decentralization. Previously he taught at Columbia University, New York and Northern Illinois University. He has also held research fellowships at the Center for Equality Development and Globalization Studies at Northwestern University, Illinois, the Weatherhead East Asian Institute. New York, and the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, Leiden. Michael Buehler has been an Associate Research Fellow at the Asia Society in New York City since 2011.
'Buehler's provocative study asks us to think twice before making
facile assumptions about political parties, civil society and
'Islamisation' in post-Soeharto Indonesia. His conclusions will not
go unchallenged, but the scholarship is superb, and the richness of
the data, in terms of both geographic scope and historical depth,
makes for a fascinating study about how old elites try to
manipulate new sources of political legitimacy in a democratizing
state. Buehler shows how a partnership of political opportunists
and pious activists can produce Islamist outcomes without strong
Islamic political parties. This is a book guaranteed to stimulate
argument and debate.' Sidney Jones, Director, Institute for Policy
Analysis of Conflict, Jakarta
'This is an excellent study of local politics and the dynamics of
Islamisation in Indonesia in the years of post-authoritarian
transition. Based on detailed case studies, Buehler provides a
convincing explanation of the seeming paradox that Islamist
political parties performed poorly in elections but the
Islamisation of public life was in fact carried forward by secular
local politicians, many of whom still belonged to the elite of the
ancien régime. His observations on how democratisation enabled
vocal (Islamist) pressure groups based outside the political system
to have a greater impact on decision-making than Islamist parties
within the system have relevance beyond the specific case of
Indonesia.' Martin van Bruinessen, Universiteit Utrecht, The
Netherlands
'Michael Buehler has produced a fine piece of scholarship on
contemporary Indonesian politics that engages several important
literatures - religion and politics, democratic transitions, social
movement theory, and questions of democratic representation and
accountability. This book is excellently researched, focusing on
historically grounded case studies across multiple regions. Buehler
examines a curious puzzle: Islamic parties and candidates have not
fared well in Indonesian elections since 1998, and yet there has
been a surge in Islamic laws at the local level championed mostly
by vote-hungry candidates from non-Islamic parties. He emphasizes
the short-term strategizing and competition among political elites
who do not intend Indonesia to become an Islamic state, even if the
effect of their opportunistic electoral politics across several
regions nudges the country increasingly in that direction. Buehler
advances a bold thesis that is illuminating not only for Indonesia,
but for other Islamic countries as well.' Jeffrey Winters,
Northwestern University, Illinois
'Who is pushing most for new shari'a regulations in Indonesia? To
address this question Buehler has created a pioneering data set on
443 shari'a regulations which he adroitly analyses with a rich
range of concepts. Buehler counterfactually shows that almost all
of these shari'a regulations have been passed by secular
bureaucrats who were looking to get some political, and often
financial, gain. He also illustrates that one of the reasons for
the decline of total vote of Islamic political parties is that they
are ideologically multi-vocal and join many different competing
party coalitions, often with secularist allies. Buehler's book,
based on over fifty months of theoretically sensitive field
research, has resulted in a wonderful conceptual and empirical
enrichment to the literature on democracy and Islam.' Alfred C.
Stepan, Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government, Founding Director
of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion,
and Co-Director of the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public
Life, Columbia University, New York
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