In The Candidate's Dilemma, Elisabeth Kramer tells the story of how three political candidates in Indonesia made decisions to resist, engage in, or otherwise incorporate money politics into their electioneering strategies over the course of their campaigns.

As they campaign, candidates encounter pressure from the institutional rules that guide elections, political parties, and voters, and must also negotiate complex social relationships to remain competitive. For anticorruption candidates, this context presents additional challenges for building and maintaining their identities. Some of these candidates establish their campaign parameters early and are able to stay their course. For others, the campaign trail results in an avalanche of compromises, each one eating away at their sense of what constitutes "moral" and "acceptable" behavior. The Candidate's Dilemma delves into the lived experiences of candidates to offer a nuanced study of how the political and personal intersect when it comes to money politics, anticorruptionism, and electoral campaigning in Indonesia.

About the Author

Elisabeth Kramer is Deputy Director at the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre and Honorary Associate at the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Sydney. Follow her on X @liskramer.

Reviews

The Candidate's Dilemma advances our understanding of how money politics in Indonesia work on an empirical level. Unlike other scholarly works on the topic, the book immerses the reader in the personal experiences and situations of candidates.

* Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies *



Book Information
ISBN 9781501764059
Author Elisabeth A. Kramer
Format Paperback
Page Count 216
Imprint Southeast Asia Program Publications, Cornell University
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 16mm