Mafias, Machines and Mobilization: The Sources of Local Power in Three Districts in North Sumatra, Indonesia

Abstract

The thesis analyzes the sources of power that underpin political coalitions in three districts in North Sumatra in an attempt to explain patterns of local political contention. Three basic types of coalitions contend for power in these places. Local mafias are powerful when the officials who direct the executive office, bureaucratic agencies and the assembly collude to distribute state patronage among themselves and their allied business contractors. Party machines deploy party resources, legislative power and influence within supra-local bureaucracies to dominate local politics. When mafias and machines are evenly matched and well-developed social organizations are present, one or both sides may attempt to gain an advantage by mobilizing previously excluded constituencies. The expanded, mobilizing coalition that results has a broader popular base than mafias or machines. The strategies that each type of coalition chooses to pursue power are constrained by the resources they can summon from the institutions upon which they are based. The approach applies in other Indonesian districts to the extent that similar sources of power exist in other places. Recent competition among coalitions implies that political power in Indonesia is recentralizing even as new constituencies join local ruling coalitions.