Nickel extractivism and elite shifts: evidence from Central Sulawesi

Indonesia’s effort to accelerate nickel downstreaming as part of the global energy transition has reshaped provincial-level politics, particularly in Central Sulawesi, where rapid extraction has shifted elite dominance from traditional ethno-religious elites to capital-based ones. Drawing on fieldwork conducted between 2020 and 2024 – including thirty-three interviews, analysis of media and policy documents, wealth reports of public officials and electoral data – this article asks: why and under what conditions have elite candidates who are backed by nickel capital succeeded in recent regional elections? The findings reveal that three interconnected mechanisms – soaring electoral costs, increasingly transactional party structures and the transformation of extractive rents into brokerage networks – have enabled capital-based elites to consolidate local power, marginalizing post-conflict ethno-religious elites. Although this study focuses on Central Sulawesi, similar cases may be observed in other regions of Indonesia experiencing extractivism booms, particularly in nickel. This article makes both an empirical contribution, by demonstrating how nickel extractivism translates into electoral advantage, and a theoretical contribution, by connecting mineral booms to elite transformation in emerging democracies.