"The South Korean model", says an Indonesian intellectual, "no longer works." As a comment on the punctured Korean economic miracle, that would hardly be profound. But the Indonesian was drawing a political lesson from his own country's recent troubles: that it is no longer so easy to argue the benefits of strong authoritarian rule. As in South Korea and Taiwan, the argument used to go, democratic change could be postponed in Indonesia until the country was much richer. Then, as a growing middle class demanded more openness and participation in government, it would come without too much bloodshed. But in Indonesia years of heady economic growth have brought little political reform. Will sudden economic collapse be more productive?
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