ABSTRACT
Contemporary political dynamics around the world are increasingly turning our attention to the role of ideas and narratives within political competition. This chapter introduces the key themes of this book by highlighting the way in which political representation is impacted by the ideational domain and the value of assessing this aspect of political representation in the context of Indonesian politics. By engaging in representative claim-making, political representatives present narratives about themselves and the world around them. Through the process of making representative claims, repertoires can form around common patterns of claim-making – particularly where these claims are successful and lead to the accumulation of ideational power. This introductory chapter argues that thinking about political representation in this way helps us to understand the most prominent political representatives in contemporary Indonesia: the innovative technocrats.
