Repertoires of Representation and an Application to Indonesia's Jokowi

This article builds upon the recently elaborated concept of the representative claim to define the notion of representative repertoires. In making representative claims, would-be representatives rely upon existing ways of being representative that fit within their given context. As such, methods of making representative claims, including the common themes they are built on, form repertoires of representation. Having established this concept, this article applies it to Indonesia's most successful contemporary politician, Joko Widodo (better known locally as Jokowi). Jokowi's success, it is argued here, can partially be explained by the way in which he draws on repertoires of representation. Three such repertoires are identified in the article, and examples are provided of how Jokowi has made claims based on these repertoires. Ultimately, this article argues that the concept of the representative repertoire allows us to not only critically assess how individual politicians deploy representative claims, but also how these forms of claim making, as repertoires, are then adopted and further developed by other would-be representatives.