The Limits of Weberian on Anti-Corruption Approaches in the Indonesian Municipalities

Abstract

The study of corruption in the Indonesian municipalities comprises a broad variety of analysis, ranging from patron-client, clientelism, rent-seeking, etc. The various analysis of corruption indicates that there has been a gradual increase in the scholar’s attention associated with the high number of corruption cases in the Indonesian local governments, especially after reform period. Yet, the high attentions of scholars are still insufficient to formulate a best anti-corruption approach. In the public administration discourse, the scholars got often stuck to find a suitable approach to reducing corruption in the Indonesian local governments. The tendency of academia’s has explained solely by a bureaucracy analysis on the part of a Weberian discourse is one sided. Although the Weberian idea has provided some interesting ideas to frame corruption, the scholars still face difficulty in capturing a full image of the corruption problem. That means corruption is not always easy to explain from a single perspective. The failed of Weberian perspective to understand corruption could be reflected through a performance of local governments that is implemented anti-corruption programs in the bureaucracy. Thus, we need to be diagnosed in seeing the failure of a Weberian idea to formulate anti-corruption approaches in the Indonesian municipalities. I also would like to discuss the possibility of alternative perspective in the contextualizing anti-corruption approaches in the Indonesian municipalities.