Contemporary Southeast Asia - Storey, Ian (Singapore : ISEAS Publishing, 2020)
Testing for Incumbency Advantages in a Developing Democracy Test Riono and Scot Schraufnagel This article makes the case for the importance of studying incumbency advantages in a developing democracy. Incumbency advantages are a well-known institutional feature of electoral systems in consolidated democracies, and indirectly provide a test of democratic accountability. With free and fair elections, incumbency advantage should attenuate when governments underperform. Our research tests whether this is the case in a newer democracy such as Indonesia. Specifically, we study local voting for district heads and city mayors in the 2015 Indonesian elections. We find that incumbents win a majority of the time when they run, but their re-election rates are lower than witnessed in many well-established democracies. While term limits and strategic political arrangements are an important aspect of incumbent politician turnover in Indonesia, our findings suggest that something akin to democraticaccountability is also likely taking place. In addition, we find that incumbent local leaders with a stronger parochial focus, measured as spending in their district, fare better at the ballot box.
Special Economic Zones and the Need for Proper Governance Syarif Hidayat and Siwage Dharma Negara The relationship between the performance of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and their governance is an under-researched topic. Despite their popularity as a development policy tool in developing countries, many SEZs fail to achieve their intended goals. A key factor determining the success of SEZs is their governance set-up. This article examines the designs and practices of governance in three SEZs in Indonesia-two tourism-oriented SEZs and one industry-oriented SEZ. Exploring the gap between the theoretical concept of "good governance" and the actual governance practices in SEZ development and operation, the article finds that current governance designs and practices neglect the importance of local contexts, which in turn results in suboptimal outcomes. We therefore suggest that the designs and practices for SEZ governance should be adjusted to reflect local socio-economic, cultural and political conditions. In other words, successful SEZ models should be based on a governance framework that needs to be both "good" and "proper".