Direct Local Elections Research Articles

The transition to direct mayoral elections in clientelistic environments: Causal public spending and service delivery effects

We examine the impact of the transition to direct mayoral elections on district spending and household public service access in Indonesia during a period of momentous national democratic reform. We leverage the arguably exogenous timing of direct local elections to specify a staggered difference-in-differences model, which we estimate using the latest methods to plausibly identify causal effects. We find that the transition to direct elections led to a consistent and large decline in capital spending in both pre- and post-election years. We also determine that the transition resulted in a moderate decrease in household service access in the post-election period. Pre-election capital spending impacts are a function of both general disruptions associated with the transition and emerging clientelism. Service access effects are completely explained by the relative extent of clientelism across districts. We conclude that the local democratic transition in Indonesia had a mostly negative impact on key spending and service outcomes, at least in the short-run and for those districts in which clientelistic practices were especially pronounced.

Pig‐feast democracy

AbstractIn most Melanesian societies, pig feasts have been declining in recent years, owing to the incursion of Christianity and the modern economy. But in Indonesia‐occupied West Papua, pig feasts are being held more often, and at a greater scale, than ever. The feasts are taking place in the context of West Papua's “special autonomy” status and Indonesia's democratic reforms, which have established direct local elections (pilkada) in the region. The boom in pig feasts shows how this traditional institution, together with the modern institution of elections, has become a platform for contestations over democracy and Papuan autonomy. Anthropological attention to traditional institutions, such as pig feasts, can offer insight into a condition of plural political order. It can furthermore tell us how Indigenous Peoples negotiate the terms of democratic reforms and negotiate their incorporation into the state through their own institution of ceremonial exchange.

DEVELOPMENT POLITICS OF DALIHAN NA TOLU IN THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE OF BATAK ANGKOLA PEOPLE

This study aims to describe the development politics of Dalihan Na Tolu in the social perspective of the Angkola Batak indigenous people. Humanist political philosophy in South Tapanuli is very basic to be used as motivation for the younger generation because the beginnings of politics stem from various views on the meaning of power and how life situations are in various countries, as well as the times. This study uses a descriptive qualitative research method. Data collection was carried out by literature study, observation, document analysis, and interviews. The results of the study show that South Tapanulis is an area where the Islamic religion and Angkola culture are very strong with the kinship system "dalihan na tolu". Dalihan Na Tolu's local cultural conception with the view of life of noble ancestors in the social order of living together, working together, shoulder to shoulder, rap tu ginjang (rising to the highest level/peak of success), rap tu toru (failure/falling together -sama), marsipature junglea be (to build their own hometown). Humanist political philosophy in South Tapanuli is very important to be used as motivation for the younger generation, because the beginnings of politics stem from various views on the meaning of power and how the situation of life is in various countries and so is the development of the times. Politics is the way the existing society sees itself in managing its life so that it is better. South Tapanulis is an area that has a very strong Islamic religion and Angkola cultural customs with a kinship system "dalihan na tolu". It is an undeniable fact that the political tradition that has often been practiced so far in seizing power is by relying on the power of capital (hepeng) or in the form of praxis by using the 'dawn attack' strategy (Money politic). It is this kind of democratic character that we will fight against. Can people who have strong religion and customs fight the power of capital? It is time for direct local elections to be able to change the paradigm of people's thinking from capital-oriented to cultural-oriented, towards a strong civilization. This spirit is a challenge for the sons and daughters of South Tapanuli who want to share their views with the conception of a culture of political resistance "marsialap ari" as a conception of local culture with the view of life of noble ancestors in a social order living together, working together, shoulder to shoulder, rap tu ginjang (rising to the highest level/peak of success), rap tu toru (failure/falling together), marsipature junglea be (building each other's hometown).

The Power of Constitutional Court to Settle Disputes on Local Election Results

Constitutional Court Decision No. 85/PUU-XX/2022 abolished the proposal to establish a special court that have the power to resolve disputes on local election. As a result, that power shifted to Constitutional Court. This, de facto, is not the power designed to be exercised by the Court. Back tracked on historical trajectory of holding direct local elections, there has been a tug-of-war between judicial bodies on who have the legitimate power to settle the disputes on local elections results. This study aims to examine the power of Constitutional Court to adjudicate disputes on local election results. To achieve the research objective, this research framework will look at the historical context to have an overview of the dynamics of transposition of judicial bodies to settle the disputes. In addition, this also assess Constitutional Court decisions which provide interpretations as the basis for the legitimacy of the Court's power to adjudicate local election disputes.

Kontribusi Kearifan Lokal Dalam Mewujudkan Pemilu Damai


 The theoretical dominance of direct local election is mainly based on western theory of democracy, local politics and development. There are plenty western theories used to analyze current Indonesian local politics, including direct local election. In fact, however, the problems of local direct election still take place in many forms of disadvantages. These problems are, for instance, money politics, riots, long conflicts, black campaigns and so forth. In order to minimize these problems, local wisdom based on Javanese values is important in contribution to solve the relevant problems. There are many Javanese value based local wisdom that may useful to be implemented.
 Keywords: local direct elections, local wisdom, Javanese values, local politics.

Democratizing corruption: a role structure analysis of Indonesia’s “Big Bang” decentralization

The study investigates to what degree Indonesia’s large-scale decentralization and democratization changed corruption networks. A role structure approach is developed to move current analysis of dyad-level structures to the network level. This approach is empirically tested by comparing the relational content and third-party structures of 96 corruption networks operating in the first phase of decentralization (2001–2004), characterized by a powerful local council, with 94 corruption networks detected in the second phase (2005–2013), when direct local elections were introduced, and the power of the local council declined. Building on Fiske’s relational model theory, it is argued and found that the local executive’s reduced dependence on the local council provided the opportunity to initiate corrupt exchanges with a broader set of players both inside and outside the bureaucracy. Whereas deep dependence power relations (i.e. formal authority) remained important, an increasing proportion of corruption networks involved compound role structures characterized by both shallow (non-embedded profit and work relations) and deep interdependence (kin- and friendship). Furthermore, third party intermediaries became more important. Implications for the study of networks of corruption are discussed.

Decentralization and Citizen Perception of Prosperity in Indonesia

This article contributes to research on the impact of decentralisation reforms on local and regional prosperity. Researchers argue that implementing decentralization reforms can encourage citizens to participate in policy making. To test the idea, this study examines the relationship between fiscal decentralisation, administrative autonomy, direct local elections, and citizen prosperity using the Indonesia Family Live Survey (IFLS) 2007. IFLS is a longitudinal survey that uses face-to-face interviews with adult Indonesians (N individuals = 29,000, N districts = 262). Using ordered logistic regression, we find that fiscal and administrative decentralisation increases the probability that citizens feel prosperous, while direct local elections do not appear to have this effect. This relationship is stronger when the decentralisation reform is conducted in a less-corrupt institutional environment. The findings suggest that decentralisation in the weak political system may improve local prosperity through the improved capacity of Indonesian districts to deliver public services rather than through the opportunities for citizens to participate in local elections

Local elections 2021: an overview of survey research

The President of Kazakhstan, on September 1, 2020, addressing the citizens of the country, took the initiative to hold direct local elections. Such elections should become a new stage of political modernization. A course was set for the liberalization of the political system in the country. This article presents partial results of the experience of conducting a study into the recent elections of local heads. The methodology of the study is described, and there are answers to some hypotheses presented. The assessment of the socio-economic situation of the objects of research- settlements is presented. The article considers electoral behavior, communication of the authorities with the population and the effectiveness of the reform. The theoretical significance of this study consists in the study and identification of factors related to electoral issues. The practical significance lies in the development and application of the questionnaire, in the pre-electoral and post-electoral period in the subsequent direct elections of heads of local executive authorities. The information obtained can be used for further study of the problematic issue, both for the areas under consideration and in similar types. The article examines the theoretical aspects of elections in general, and in particular, of local executive bodies. The research of electoral behavior in the perspective of transition into democracy, the interaction of "power and society" are considered. Some problems of personnel management, economic management and budgeting are raised.

Modal Sosial dalam Keterpilihan Perempuan Calon Gubernur: Studi Kasus Karolin Margret Natassa di Kalimantan Barat dan Khofifah Indar Parawansa di Jawa Timur pada Pilkada Serentak 2018

This thesis aims to see how social capital is utilized in the process of selecting female gubernatorial candidates in the 2018 election. The research subjects were Karolin Margret Natassa of West Kalimantan and Khofifah Indar Parawansa of East Java. This phenomenon needs to be studied through a constructive paradigm, to find out how these two women formed and used their social capital to win as governors, a position that has rarely been filled by women since the direct local election era began. A social capital analysis is placed at the micro (individual) level in the structural (network) dimension using the Social Capital theory of Pierre Bourdieu and Robert Putnam. This research also wanting to identifies what kind of political pathways lead women into political contestation, and how it can affect the instrumentalization pattern of their social capital. The research procedure was carried out using qualitative methods where data collection was carried out through in-depth interviews with key informants and then deepened by literature studies. The results showed that Karolin and Khofifah have different types of social network ties in the process of utilizing their social capital. Karolin is a Bonding type (Same identity with strong ties characteristic and more focusing on internal traits), while Khofifah is a Bridging and Linking type, where the earned trust is used to bridge the interests of groups and later to be activated as a ladder to her political interests. The results of the study also identified Karolin as a politician from the elite route and Khofifah as a politician from the grassroots route.

Sacralization Religion, Power Elite And Leadership: Female Regents In East Java

The involvement of the local Islamic boarding school (Pesantren) elite in a regional head election in East Java becomes the winning determiner. In a direct local election, elite religious roles significantly influence the constituent's vote. The elite utilizes religious hegemony in increasing society's political participation during an election. The era of new religious movement changes the tendencies of the thinking paradigm that, for the first time, women emerge as regional heads. This paper was aimed to analyze the hegemony of the religious elite based on Pesantren in the postmodernism era in regional head elections, especially in East Java. This research used qualitative research with a descriptive perspective and content analysis of qualitative data, which revealed that there is hegemony and patron-client movement of Islamic boarding school (Pesantren) among kyai, students, alumni, sympathizers, and Pesantren communities as a strategy to win regional head. The researcher used the elite theory approach and political participation theory—research data obtained from the library and document analysis from the affiliated institution. The formulation of this problem is how the religious elite hegemony the societies by increasing public participation and convincing voters to vote for women's candidates as governor. The analysis result remarks the hegemony of the religious elite becomes a tool to obtain power in a regional head election because there are significant influences of religious elite functioning giving dogmatize to society through religious routines ritual such as religion speech

Do Smaller Local Governments Bring Citizens More? Evidence from Direct Elections in Indonesia

Abstract Do smaller local governments provide more for their citizens, especially when they are also held accountable to their citizens? This paper extends the empirical literature on the size of local governments by explicitly exploring one of the key influencing factors – direct local elections, a proxy for local accountability. Using an Indonesian panel of village-level outcomes data, the paper shows that a reduction in local government size (due to district splitting) increases public good provision but that this effect is restricted to districts that had direct local elections. It also provides suggestive evidence to show that increased revenue was channeled into developmental expenditures only in those split districts that faced direct elections. The identification strategy relies on a surprise local election announced while the number of local governments in Indonesia was increasing, which also abruptly imposed a moratorium on the process of splitting.

Money politics and the obstacles on national leadership succession

This paper reflects the succession of national leadership, especially at the level of regional leaders. The succession of the national leadership is currently facing various problems, including insufficient competencies, poor quality of regeneration from political parties, and the presence of many prospective leaders who suddenly enter during the election process. The problems in the regeneration of national leaders occur due to many factors. One of the most influential factors in the author's view is the rise of money politics in the Pilkada (Regional Simultaneous Election). Money politics is a severe obstacle in democratic life because it has proven successful in blocking the way for the regeneration of potential leaders—likewise, political parties are trapped in carrying candidates with "deep pockets" to finance party operations. Finally, money politics that has become entrenched has become the new normal by directing people to vote for candidates with the lure of material instead of the program to be carried out. Money politics, in some cases, refer to the Indonesian people's economic condition and education, which are still relatively low. In addition, direct local elections, held directly so far, have also added space for more fertile money politics. Therefore, this paper proposes a solution that can be taken to improve the current system. The author suggests implementing the Asymmetric Election System, which can carry out two alternative electoral systems. The alternative electoral system will be applied by looking at the parameters of democracy that will be measured in each region. Local elections can be run by direct elections for areas with a high parameter. On the other hand, in regions with low democratic parameters, local elections must be carried out with an indirect system. The proposed indirect Pilkada system is not the same as the indirect Pilkada during the New Order. There are some changes and improvements so that community participation becomes more accommodated. It is hoped that money politics can be eradicated with the proposed system, and the Pilkada can return to its function as a succession of national leadership in the regions.

The Implementation of Direct Local Election (Pilkada) and Money Politics Tendencies: The Current Indonesian Case

Circulating debates concerning the intense influence of direct local election towards money politics remains ongoing among Indonesian scholars. This article demonstrates several aspects indicating the relationship between direct local election (Pilkada) and money politics. In more specific rhetoric, current practices in money politics tend to occur before and during the election day, engaging political actors, voters, and soaring capital. As the novelty of this article, the findings reveal that the likelihood of money politics would most occur within the environment where the existing regulation encourages corruption. Hence, people have less concern to support a fair election, inevitably due to the weak law enforcement, exacerbated by disengagement of political parties.

Human Security in The Age of Electoral Democracy: Politico-Business Alliances in The Malang Regency, Indonesia

This study discusses the politico-business configuration of electoral democracy and its impact on human security in Malang. Indonesia's reforms in the post-Soeharto era marked by implementing new institutions of democracy through direct local elections (Pilkada), where people acquire their rights to directly determine their executive leader at both national and regional levels. Democracy institution is believed would naturally lead to greater human security. However, evidence -from the cases experienced in Malang- reveals a different result. The introduction of democratic institutions harmed human security because predatory alliances hijacked it. Liberal space as well as the opening up of elite competitions, provided by democracy, interfered with local politics. Both local politics and economic spheres were dominated by political and business elite coalitions. Also, the sustainability of good governance and democratic institutions tends to be dictated by the interests of these predatory elite alliances. Although there have been abundant studies on Indonesia’s democratization and decentralization, the problem of human security in the democratization process has rarely been conducted. This study, therefore, aims to reveal the practice of politico- business alliances in Malang that take over public resources and local budgets for their interests through the democratic institution. The significance of this study is an empirical contribution to develop an understanding of the process of how democratic institutions are hijacked by a few people (local elites) by seizing regional resources and sacrificing human security. Keywords: electoral democracy, human security, politico-business alliance, Malang Regency

FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE FOR LOCAL COMPANIES : POLITICAL EVENT STUDY IN SURABAYA

The purpose of this research is to determine the differences of financial performance and market performance before, as at, and after direct election for local government executive. This research picks 28 Surabaya based listed companies as samples based on purposive sampling method with several criteria during local government election. Method of hypothesis testing uses multivariate analysis of variance (manova) and Kruskal Wallis test with three groups of periods, which are before, as at, and after the direct election for local government executive. The results show that there is no significant financial performance of local based company in Surabaya caused by direct local government election measured by current ratio, working capital turnover ratio, debt to asset and return to asset ratio. The market performance test shows that the there is significant difference of company’s abnormal return before, as at, and after the direct election for local government executive. Furthermore, the abnormal return after the direct election for local government executive was significant higher than as at the election year.

Korelasi PILKADA Langsung dan Korupsi di Indonesia

Elections are a very important moment in a democratic country like Indonesia. With a variety of experiences holding elections since the country gained its independence to the electoral event which was initiated directly and simultaneously as mandated by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia in its Decision. There are so many problems in it, including Corruption in Direct Local Election practices in Indonesia. This writing tries to describe the various opportunities for Corruption in the implementation of the Direct Local Election and various efforts that can be made to prevent such Corruption. There needs to be a strong commitment and synergy from all entities in this country so that the problem of corruption is not widespread and rooted in Indonesia.

Measuring the Urgency of Asymmetric Local Elections (Pilkada) in Papua

The local elections (Pilkada) had been implemented since 2005 in Papua, are deemed incapable of resolving problems. On the other hand, the direct local elections' political costs are not small, both from the state's budget and from the candidates to the regions. Implementing direct local elections sometimes creates ineffective governance, especially in areas that do not yet have a mature democracy. The ongoing local democratic system is also often colored by conflict. This research focuses on the urgency of the asymmetric regional election in Papua. This research will explain how important asymmetric local elections (Pilkada) is applied in Papua. Moreover, this study uses a library method and a qualitative approach. The results of this study found several reasons for direct local elections, not yet satisfactory results. Democratization in Papua is still not well consolidated. This research concludes that the warning to hold asymmetric local elections in Papua needs to be considered. However, these choices are not final—contemporary decisions in preparing communities' political and social structures.

Abstentions Phenomenon (Golput) Direct Local Election

The phenomenon of the "Golput" occurs in each election fluctuation, sometimes up and down, sometimes influenced by various factors. This research uses the literature study method by summarizing some documentation related to Indonesia's phenomenon of abstentions. Factors that cause voters not to give their voting rights are political, ideological, and identity factors. But abstentions can also be influenced by an improperly organized election system. From the results of this study, someone behaves abstentions from the technical aspects due to voters' technical constraints. It prevents them from exercising their right to vote, for example, having other activities at the same time on election day so they cannot come to the voting place. Golput is a person's attachment to voting in the general election process based on psychological factors, sociological factors, and rational voter factors. On the political aspect, abstentions have reasons such as distrust of the party, and candidates do not believe in a better chance. Meanwhile, if viewed from one aspect, identity can see based on religion, education level, age, gender, etc. In terms of faith, a person decides to abstain because party is expected not to be elected as a candidate. For example, Christian tends not to choose a party that carries Islam, such as the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the United Development Party (PPP), and others. In contrast, most nationalist candidates or political parties are considered less representative to accommodate their aspirations. Then abstentions will be the final choice taken.

DINAMIKA PEMILIHAN KEPALA DAERAH LANGSUNG DI PROVINSI SULAWESI TENGGARA

This study discusses the dynamics of direct regional head elections at the provincial level with a case study of the election of the Governor and Deputy Governor of Southeast Sulawesi Province in 2018. This study is not necessarily interpreted as a change in direct local elections to be indirect, but rather as a middle way in making policies in the future. will come. This study begins with a review of various direct election problems as a form of evaluation. Thus, the implementation of direct elections can improve the quality of democracy at the local and national levels. Further research is highly recommended after this study.

Direct and Simultaneous Regional Head Election in Indonesia with Government Efforts to Build a Balance of Political and Managerial Approaches

This study aims to implement government efforts in direct and simultaneous regional head elections by building a balance between politics and managerial in Indonesia. The case studies in this study used direct and simultaneous elections in 2015, 2017, and 2018. Direct and simultaneous regional elections in 2015, 2017, and 2018 were the population in this study, while samples were obtained from primary data and secondary data. There were six observations which included grant funds, voter data, voter participation, SCA neutrality, security and order, and acting for regional head preparation. The policies regarding the regional government law and the election law as well as building the political and managerial balance of the government are expected to be able to anticipate and overcome problems that arise in direct and simultaneous regional head elections. Originality in this study is a new approach in building balance with a managerial approach to governance and the decentralization approach. Besides, it can provide alternative suggestions and input that encourage the development of a balance of political and managerial dimensions of government in direct and simultaneous local elections in Indonesia.