The Candidate's Dilemma

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.

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.

The Candidate's Dilemma is a well-researched and insightful analysis of the challenges of corruption and money politics in Indonesian election campaigns. The book provides a wealth of detailed information about the strategies that candidates use and the challenges they face, making it a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners alike.

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.

Meredith Weiss, University at Albany, State University of New York, author of The Roots of Resilience:

This well-researched book broaches an important paradox in Indonesian politics: the prevalence of both persistently high levels of corruption and strong anticorruption rhetoric. Immensely readable, the book will be a useful entry point into the workings of Indonesian election campaigns.

Thomas Pepinsky, Cornell University, author of Economic Crises and the Breakdown of Authoritarian Regimes:

Presenting a wealth of original material about Indonesian election campaigns with nuanced detail, The Candidate's Dilemma vividly captures the complexities and contradictions of anticorruptionism in Indonesia. Elisabeth Kramer's command over the politics of anticorruption messaging is excellent.