A Tale of Three Cities: Electoral Accountability in Indonesian Local Politics

Abstract

Local politics is a key arena for political participation, and policies implemented by local government can shape a variety of political and social outcomes, ranging from access to social services to infrastructure development, environmental protection, human rights, and many others. Patterns of local democratic accountability, however, often display dramatic sub-national variation, especially in diverse young democracies where spatial inequalities are stark. While some local governments are responsive to the preferences of their constituents, others become prey to powerful local elites who avail themselves of democratic institutions to further consolidate economic and political domination. Indonesian local politics is an apt illustration of such subnational variation in political processes and policy outcomes. The decentralisation laws implemented in the early 2000s have provided Indonesian districts and provinces with unprecedented financial resources, establishing a legal basis for local government activism in a wide range of policy areas. In many respects, however, the outcomes of decentralisation in Indonesia are often described as disappointing, and wide subnational inequalities persist in various indicators of social development (see Lewis 2014). Scholarly research has long acknowledged serious flaws in how democracy works in Indonesian regions, focusing on local politics as a crucial determinant of local policy outcomes. Work by Hadiz (2004a, 2004b; 2010), for instance, has amply documented enduring elite entrenchment in local government, exposing how patterns of oligarchic rule prevent meaningful

Differences in the Arrangement of Leave Outside the State Responsibility for Presidential Candidates and Incumbent Regional Head Candidates Based on the Equality Before the Law

“…The incumbent's consequence can carry out a permanent campaign. 11 The discussion regarding these restrictions has already been discussed in the changes to the 2008 regional election law, namely by discussing leave outside the state responsibility for regional heads and incumbent regional deputy regional heads. The incumbent Regional Head and Deputy Regional Head candidates are obliged to leave outside the state's responsibility.…”

Penerapan Prinsip-Prinsip Good Governance Oleh Eksklusifitas Aktor Di Makassar

“…Sehingga, ketika good governance yang salah satunya menghendaki keterlibatan civil society untuk mengambil peran cenderung tersisih oleh akusisi para aktor governance yang lain. Selain itu, para pengkritik juga melihat sisi lain yang dianggap masih terdapat kelemahan pada good governace adalah selama ini sudut pandang yang dibangun lebih kepada menyoroti proses akutabilitas dan partisipasi (Fossati: 2017, Husen dkk: 2017, Fernandes and Raffles :2017, Pal and Zaki :2016. Gagasan ini sepenuhnya mempersoalkan mekanisme pertanggung jawaban pada good governance.…”

Exploring citizen turnout and invalid voting in Indonesia: two sides of the same coin?

“…While recent studies indicate the resurgence of an ideological cleavage about the role of Islam in politics (Fossati, 2019), the Indonesian political system is typically described as being largely clientelistic. In-depth qualitative studies of voting behavior show the predominance of patronage politics in citizens-politician linkages (Aspinall & Sukmajati, 2016); quantitative analyses describe voting behavior as driven by non-ideological factors such as preference for political leaders and retrospective evaluations of government performance (Fossati, 2018;Mujani et al, 2018); studies of party politics emphasize the collusive behavior among Indonesian political parties (Slater & Simmons, 2013).…”

“…Turnout has a mean value of 75.8 %. The districts with the lowest turnout rate were Medan City in North Sumatra (51.8%), a well-known outlier with regard to electoral participation (Fossati 2018), neighbouring district Deli Serdang (55.1%) and Padang City in West Sumatra (53.7%). At the opposite end of the spectrum, three districts with very different characteristics, including Sampang (94.8%) and Bangkalan (91.1%) in the island of Madura, two highly homogenous Javanese-Muslim areas, and the district of Melawi in West Kalimantan (93.8%), which displays one of the highest levels of religious diversity in the archipelago.…”