Power in Motion: Capital Mobility and the Indonesian State

Departing from more abstract treatments of globalization, this innovative approach to changing power relations in contemporary capitalism builds on a textured account of Indonesian politics since 1965. Extending insights on the structural power of those controlling capital, Jeffrey A. Winters argues that the relative mobility of capital is becoming a better predictor of the interests and leverage of investors than is its nationality. The question now, he believes, is less whether capital is foreign or domestic than whether it is mobile or immobile. We are, he asserts, witnessing a "locational revolution" as profound as the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century.
Power in Motion offers a portrait of Indonesian politics from the fall of President Sukarno, through the oil booms and busts of the 1970s and 1980s, and into the 1990s. Analyzing the political and economic shifts during these periods, Winters uses Indonesia to explore how the structural power of capital controllers varies across place and time. He also illustrates how a focus on capital mobility illuminates a broad range of issues in developing and advanced industrial countries. A clearer understanding of the power of capital is, he contends, important for communities struggling for meaningful democracy.

Jeffrey A. Winters is Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University.