R. William Liddle

• Political Leadership and Agency
• Indonesian, Southeast Asian and Muslim World Politics and Political Behavior

Professor Liddle specializes in Indonesian, Southeast Asian, Islamic and developing world politics. He is currently conducting research on Indonesian voting behavior and developing a theory of political action or agency. His publications include Ethnicity, Party, and National Integration; Politics and Culture in Indonesia; Political Entrepreneurs and Development Strategies: Southeast Asian Cases and Comparisons; and Leadership and Culture in Indonesian Politics, plus articles in Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, International Studies Quarterly, World Development, Journal of Democracy, Journal of Asian Studies, Pacific Affairs, Government & Opposition, Asian Survey, and other scholarly journals. He has been chair of the Southeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies, and Southeast Asia editor of the Association’s Journal of Asian Studies.  He lectures frequently at the U. S. Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute and has also served as a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Recent Publications:

“Leadership, Party and Religion: Explaining Voting Behavior in Indonesia,” Comparative Political Studies, forthcoming 2007 (with Saiful Mujani).

“Political Leadership and Civilian Supremacy in Third Wave Democracies: Comparing South Korea and Indonesia,” Pacific Affairs 79:2 (Summer 2006), pp. 247-268 (with Yong Cheol Kim and Salim Said).

“Indonesia in 2005: A New Multiparty Presidential Democracy,” Asian Survey 46:1 (January/February 2006), pp. 132-139 (with Saiful Mujani).

“Year One of the Yudhoyono-Kalla Duumvirate,” Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies 41:3 (December 2005), pp. 323-338.

Primary Website (here)

Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

"There is no straight and easy road to the city of modernity. Whatever the main road chosen, there will be many tempting and ruinous side roads; there will be many marshes and wastes on either side, and many wrecked aspirations will lie there, rusting and gathering dust. Those who arrive at the city will discover it to be quite different from the destination which they and their ancestors originally sought. Yet, some roads are better than others; some destinations are better than others.

Even if none is perfect and none corresponds to the voyagers' hope on starting, some of the destinations will turn out to have been worth the travail, worth the effort of the voyagers and of their friends who helped them on their way."

-- Edward Shils, 1962.