by Damien Kingsbury (2002)
The Politics of Indonesia is an engaging and accessible account of this country's main political issues, themes, and institutions. Beginning with a discussion of traditional cultural and political influences, it traces Indonesia's political development through the colonial era and into the period of Indonesia's emergence as an independent state. Charting the rise and fall of President Suharto, the book also provides an overview of a number of contentious issues, such as the political role of the armed forces, corruption, compromised judicial independence, human rights, economic development and crisis, and national unity. It concludes by considering the main political influences at work in Indonesia at the close of the Suharto period, and the prospects for democratic reform. It also provides a useful guide to further reading. This book is a valuable and fascinating resource for students of Asian studies and related disciplines, those who travel and do business in Indonesia, and, indeed, anyone living in the strategic shadow of this important and culturally diverse nation.
John Martinkus
Australian journalist John Martinkus first went to East Timor in 1994, determined to report what was really happening as indonesia brutally suppressed the country's independence movemnet-- creating the highest per capita death toll of any conflict in the 20th century.
Anne Beier
Presents a guide to the responsibilities of citizenship as described in the Constitution, as well as a discussion of voting, jury duty, and military service.
Alan Brinkley
How did liberalism, the great political tradition that from the New Deal to the 1960s seemed to dominate American politics, fall from favor so far and so fast? In this history of liberalism since the 1930s, a distinguished historian offers an eloquent account of post-war liberalism, where it came from, where it has gone, and why. The book supplies a crucial chapter in the history of twentieth-century American politics as well as valuable and clear perspective on the state of our nation's politics today.
Harold J. Laski
Beginning with the new worlds of the Renaissance and the Reformation, this book traces the growth of liberal doctrine through the advent of the French Revolution. It shows the relationship of liberalism to the emerging economic system of capitalism, and the impact of this relationship upon science, philosophy, and literature. Laski explains how the same causes which produced the socially active aspect of liberalism also inspired the growth of socialism. The contributions of men like Machiavelli, Locke, and Voltaire, the influence of the voyages of discovery, and the effect of the Puritan Rebellion are among the special topics discussed. The Rise of European Liberalism is a historical survey of the development of liberal thought, from its earliest whispers in early Protestantism to its significance in the "Red Decade" of the 1930s. Laski argues that liberalism as a philosophy came into existence with the rise of capitalism and thus functions primarily as an ideological defense of private property in a business civilization. Hence, liberalism's progressive side is doomed to defeat because, throughout its history, the bourgeois nature of the ideology has always prevailed. In the new introduction, John Stanley traces the history and influences of Laski's thought and provides a detailed analysis of Laski's work. The essay provides a coherent study in itself of why Laski is better remembered than widely read. The Rise of European Liberalism is a classic text that deserves rediscovery for historians, philosophers, sociologists, and political scientists of the present day.