Authoritarianism And Economic Modernization In Indonesia

In this paper, the object is Indonesia and the contents are authoritarianismand the relation between authoritarianism and Economic Modernization inIndonesia. Authoritarianism was a special governmental form coming intobeing in the new nations of Asia, Africa and South America under theparticular history background. Indonesia's authoritarianism was a typicalmodel of which in East Asia. Its birth and current were directly affected by thesurroundings of East Asia and world patterns. At the same time, the effects ofIndonesia's Economic Modernization were restricted by domesticauthoritarianism's evolvement. In this paper, the author applies the methodcombines theories and historical facts into analysis to clarify the followingproblems.There are four parts in this thesis. In the first part, the author parsed thetheories that involved in the paper, comprising three aspects. The first wasauthoritarianism, including its concept, the characters and types of East Asia'sauthoritarianism. The author analyzed the backgrounds and roots ofauthoritarianism's birth in East Asia in this aspect as well. The second wasEconomic Modernization, including the concept, patterns of the EconomicModernization and the modes, characters of economy in East Asia. The thirdwas the relation between authoritarian politics and Economic Modernization.Authoritarianism was output under the particular condition of economy andhistory. Although authoritarianism of all countries in East Asia has some total,the effects on each country show the differences because of the dissimilarityof political construction and government achievement. When authoritarianismdevelops to the certain stage and its effects on Economic Modernization attainthe certain degree simultaneity, it will be forced to revise itself by the developregulation of economy and even change its quality. The three parts theoriesabove are the essential comprehension background and theories foundationwhen analyze the local related problems in Indonesia. The second part elaborated the process and conditions thatauthoritarianism established in Indonesia first, namely the course of Suhartosnatching power and Sukarno losing power, and the reasons of that conversion.The establishment of Suharto's power symbolized the beginning ofauthoritarianism in Indonesia. Then, the author analyzed the characteristicsincluding President's centralization, "exclusive party"politics, huge power ofsoldiers, and government's predominance in market of Indonesia'sauthoritarianism. These characteristics decided the functions ofauthoritarianism in the process of Economic Modernization in Indonesia. In the third part, the author first introduced the evolvement of Indonesia'seconomy in the late 20th century with three phases and exhibited theachievement of Suharto's government. In succession, the political impetus oneconomic development was emphasized, including strong governmentrescuing economy in collapse edge, guiding the direction of economicdevelopment, guaranteeing the political situation long-term stability etc. Andthen, the author revealed the strong government's abuses on EconomicModernization in Indonesia. The negative functions were that the imperfectionin political framework such as lacking of the balance and supervisionmechanism, the power stratum controlling economy and so on resulted in lotsof serious economic problems which concealed at achievement andobstructing healthy development of Economic Modernization from a long...