BETWEEN 2 WORLDS - MODERN STATE AND TRADITIONAL SOCIETY IN INDONESIA

Indonesian political leaders in the mid-20th century attempted to crea te a new state founded both on the rule of law and on their understand ings of traditional Indonesian communal life. They sought simultaneous ly to ''advance'' toward modernization and industrialization and to pr eserve older, village-level norms and values which they projected onto the national legal and political screen. This article examines the in consistencies inherent in these twin aspirations and the continuing te nsions, during a period of rapid growth and economic development, betw een rights-based conceptions and those based on an ideology of harmony and communal village life.