Ls Policy Integration Real in Policy Practice? Critical Review on How Government of Indonesia Respond to Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study aims to understand the practice of government policy in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic with a focus on cross-sectoral and cross-level policy synergies. At the central government level, ministries tend to respond sectorally and fragmentedly to the pandemic issue. Whereas from a hierarchical perspective, policy practices at the central and regional levels tend to clash with each other. Policy communication through the media also shows the atmosphere of competition between sectors and between levels of government, compared to the portrait of integrated government policy. This research is a literature study based on secondary data from the policy literature as well as policy implementation in the pandemic period April - August 2020. Policy integration analysis is built on the framework of central and local government relations in response to the pandemic. The results of the study show that the objectives of policy integration cannot yet be achieved and done in the policy practice of handling the Covid-19 pandemic organized by the government, both in terms of current problems, policies, and politics. The implementation of policies at both levels of government is not convergent and tends to be reactive, especially in dealing with these emerging pandemic issues. Likewise, in the perspective of the dynamics of the central and regional politics, where the central government tends to compete with the regional government in public in response to this pandemic.