Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. US$30.00, paper. ISBN 9780197743966.
This book provides important new insights into ethnic politics in Indonesia and our broader understanding of ethnic mobilization in elections. Colm Fox focuses on “ethnic appeals” to offer a more nuanced and complex understanding of how and when ethnicity is used for electoral gain. He engages with the broader literature on elections, which argues that the mobilization of ethnic identity is linked to group size and the potential for creating minimum “winning coalitions.” However, his analysis of Indonesian elections reveals that multiple dimensions of ethnicity may be relevant at any given time, and in a diverse country like Indonesia, it is puzzling to observe how ethnicity appears in elections but is not always central to campaigns.
Fox argues that electoral rules shape the types of ethnic appeals that are likely to be used. A key distinction is between candidate-centric and party-centric electoral systems. In candidate-centric systems, candidates use a range of ethnic appeals to win voter support. These appeals often draw on the ethnic and religious identities of candidates to connect with local groups who share similar characteristics. In contrast, party-centric systems usually involve ethnic appeals targeting the main ethnic support base of the party. Fox adds two key conditions that explain why candidate-centric elections do not always lead to ethnic mobilization, even when ethnic distinctions are clear among candidates and voters. First, there must be a critical mass of voters whose ethnic identity can create what Fox calls “viable support.” This resembles the minimum winning coalition concept found in the literature. Second, even when a group has enough support to produce electoral gains, candidates may avoid ethnic appeals if social constraints make them politically sensitive or potentially explosive. In these contexts, ethnic appeals may backfire, especially if they provoke a backlash from a majority ethnic group.
By comparison, party-centric systems only encourage ethnic appeals when a party specifically seeks the support of a particular ethnic or religious group. If a party’s programme or ideology is non-ethnic, its mobilization strategy will either try to bridge ethnic divides or bypass ethnicity entirely.
As a result, the book demonstrates that ethnic appeals can vary significantly within a country like Indonesia, across both different kinds of elections and various regions or localities. The interplay of electoral rules, social constraints, and ethnic group viability produces three potential outcomes: bonding, bridging, and bypassing. Candidates do not always pursue ethnic-based support, even when it is available. Instead, they may attempt to build bridges across ethnic lines if electoral rules offer such payoffs or if ethnic appeals are unlikely to succeed. Fox emphasizes that we cannot assume ethnic mobilization based solely on the presence of ethnic diversity, large ethnic groups, or potential ethnic competition, as Indonesia’s case illustrates. Despite its vast diversity and complexity of ethnic identities, ethnic mobilization in Indonesia is not as predictable as one might assume.
Fox’s analysis provides comparative insights into how the choices made in electoral systems, along with the complex, cross-cutting cleavages of ethnic identities, allow for a more diversified strategic use of ethnicity. This diversification has, in many cases, avoided the polarization and intensification of ethnic mobilization seen in other divided societies. In Indonesia, many ethnic appeals are not aimed at scapegoating or excluding other groups. Instead, candidates use ethnic identity as one of many tools to create connections with voters. This results in a political landscape where ethnic appeals are varied and not necessarily linked to any specific policy agenda. The outcomes of Fox’s analysis—bonding, bridging, and bypassing—contrast with the mobilization, polarization, and ethnic violence seen in other countries with deep ethnic divides.
The metaphor of a mosaic aptly describes Fox’s collection of thousands of campaign posters from various local and provincial elections across multiple years. With this unique methodology, Fox observed a clear tendency in Indonesian elections to use visual symbols and dress to attract voter attention. He has systematically analyzed these campaign materials to assess whether ethnic appeals were being made—either to a defined constituency (bonding) or across ethnic boundaries (bridging). By gathering and coding thousands of campaign posters, Fox built a large empirical dataset which forms the basis of his insights into how electoral systems shape ethnic appeals.
Fox also supplemented this large-scale analysis with in-depth research, including interviews and campaign observations in selected local and regional elections over a decade. This combination of methods allows Fox to better understand how different electoral systems and social dynamics influence ethnic appeals in Indonesia. His empirical work provides a grounded understanding of how electoral rules and social factors interact with ethnic identities to shape the strategic use of ethnicity in campaigns.
Fox’s deep and detailed analysis of ethnic appeals during elections in Indonesia offers important contributions to the study of ethnic politics. Indonesia’s case is particularly compelling due to its vast diversity, the resilience of its democratic system (despite its flaws), and the generally peaceful nature of its elections. Fox situates his work within the broader literature on ethnic politics in Indonesia, which has long focused on the causes of ethnic conflict and violence, as well as the more puzzling issue of why ethnic mobilization has been relatively limited despite the country’s diversity. His analysis also engages with the literature on Islamist mobilization in Indonesia’s recent elections, particularly its rise and decline over the past decade.
The primary contribution of Fox’s work lies in its ability to show how electoral rules and the complexity of cross-cutting ethnic identities in Indonesia have enabled a strategic use of ethnic appeals that has largely avoided the polarization and violence seen in other ethnically divided societies. While ethnic appeals in Indonesia are still a significant part of political strategy, they do not always lead to the kind of exclusionary or violent mobilization observed elsewhere. Instead, Fox shows how candidates often use ethnicity as one tool among many to appeal to voters, leading to a political environment where different kinds of appeals—bonding, bridging, and bypassing—coexist. This book therefore adds important nuances and more dynamic conceptualization of ethnic appeals and makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the processes leading ethnic mobilization during elections, not only in Indonesia but more broadly as well.
Jacques Bertrand
University of Toronto, Toronto