Regional variation in acceptance of Indonesia's family planning program

Indonesia's family planning program is regarded as a major success.Survey data from 1997 reveal that rates of contraceptive use vary dramatically amongIndonesia's 27 provinces, from a high of 67 percent of ever married women currently using contraceptives in the province of North Sulawesi, to a low of 19 percent current users in East Timor and28 percent in Aceh. This study uses both a quantitative analysis of the 1997 Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey, and a qualitative study carried out in July of 2000 to understand regionalvariation. The study identified a small number of factors that show a clear relation with levels of contraceptive use. Media exposure and education are the strongest and most consistent predictors of levels of contraceptive use, and appear to be the surest strategies for promoting family change. But the study also showed that the process of social change is subjectto culturally and historically specific local factors whose presence and importance is difficult to predict. Our study of regional variation in contraceptive use illustrates the range and complexityof obstacles faced by Indonesia's leaders in attempting to forge a single nation fromsuch a diverse and far-flung population. Although the creation of Indonesia in the space of just half a century is a monumental achievement, the project is clearly not yet complete.     

The OECD and the world market: antecedents of deep marketization

ABSTRACT

This paper documents the commitment of the OECD from its creation in 1961 to the continuous development of the world market along liberal lines. In doing so, it details a significant effort to promote what might be called proto-strategies of deep marketization across its ‘Northern’ advanced economy membership. These were articulated at key junctures: in its earliest years, then in response to the rise of the NICs (Newly Industrialized Countries) in the 1970s, again in the context of what it diagnosed as the crisis of the welfare state in the 1980s, and in a clutch of studies in the mid-1990s that anticipated and welcome the rise of China and other emerging economies. The argument made was always that sustainable growth in the advanced countries and the continued development of the world market as a whole could best be achieved if OECD members would abstain from protectionism, embrace competition and reform labour markets and social welfare in order to maintain and enhance their competitiveness in the global economy. Particular attention is drawn to the 1994 Jobs Study, which addressed the need for welfare and labour market reform in terms that foreshadowed the universal policies of deep marketization in evidence today.     

Why is the Divorce Rate Declining in Indonesia?

This article examines trends in marital dissolution in Indonesia. Analysis considers the impact of educational expansion, delayed marriage, urbanization, increasing employment before marriage, legislative change, and increased free choice in marriage on the decline in marital disruption. Trends such as delayed marriage and educational expansion account for about one third of the decline in marital dissolution. Moreover, factors associated with marital disruption are shifting in importance. In particular, age at marriage and marital duration are becoming less reliable predictors of marital stability, whereas education is becoming more important. We conclude that the shifting forces governing marital formation and dissolution in Indonesia have modified the linkages between the conjugal couple, broader kinship systems, and modes of economic support such that traditional patterns sustaining high levels of marital instability are no longer in effect.