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Indonesia. Money, power, and ideology: Political parties in post-authoritarian Indonesia By Marcus Mietzner Singapore: NUS Press, 2013. Pp. 301. Maps, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Money, power, and ideology: Political parties in post-authoritarian Indonesia By MARCUS MIETZNER Singapore: NUS Press, 2013. Pp. 301. Maps, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index. doi: 10.1017/S0022463414000435 As Indonesia enters an important election year, this book provides a timely analysis of the evolution of political parties in the country since 1998. Drawing on comparative sources and unprecedented access to influential political figures, Money, power, and ideology challenges the characterisation of Indonesia's party system as one that is either de-institutionalised or cartelised. Instead, the book argues that political parties have played a largely positive role in the ongoing consolidation of Indonesian democracy. However, the dysfunctional party financing system is identified as an enduring problem that often leads to perverse outcomes. State-financing of parties is proposed as a solution. A major portion of the book problematises the application of Richard Katz and Peter Mair's cartelisation theory to Indonesia by Dan Slater and Kuskridho Ambardi. The Indonesian case is evaluated against all four dimensions of the cartelisation thesis to conclude that the Indonesian system does not meet these criteria. First, it is argued that political alliances between parties have been too 'anarchic' to be characterised as a cartel (p. 151) and President SBY has struggled to impose discipline among his contentious allies. Most significantly, PDI-P's consistent role as an opposition party, at the expense of lucrative ministerial positions, is cited to challenge the existence of a party cartel. Second, the decline in state subsidies to political parties since Reformasi is used to argue that parties in Indonesia have not fused with the state in a way that is predicted by the cartelisation paradigm. Here, the claim that Indonesia's bureaucracy, specifically the Ministry of the Interior, has systematically blocked political parties' access to state resources is an important one. The role of bureaucracies in democratic consolidation remains relatively under-theorised and this book provides useful insights on how this may be studied in the future. Third, the book claims that there is active engagement between civil society and political parties such as the PKB and PAN that have their roots in mass organisations, while party-society disconnect is a key outcome of cartelisation in Western Europe. Fourth, the cartelisation thesis predicts reduced influence of regional branches on the party's decision-making. The book contends that local level cadres in major Indonesian parties continue to play a role in deciding critical matters such as selection of the party's leadership. This systematic evaluation of the cartelisation thesis makes a significant contribution in advancing the study of Indonesia's democratic consolidation. …