scholarly journals Proliferation of Local Governments in Indonesia: Identity Politics within a Troubled Nation State

PCD Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Purwo Santoso

This article aims to scrutinise the phenomenon of proliferation of local government units in Indonesia in order to understand how identity politics has evolved within and through the process of decentralization. In doing so, there are several points to make. The numbers of districts and municipalities in Indonesia have doubled within six years. Local governments have proliferated in the sense that the numbers of local government units have multiplied rapidly in such a short period. There were 'only' a little bit more than 200 units when Suharto stepped down in 1998, and that had more than doubled to 466 units in 2006. Interestingly, this took place in an absence of a definite plan, as the state showed its enthusiasm for decentralisation and a bottom-up process of decision-making. First, the state can no longer maintain its hegemonic role. Under the regimes of Sukarno and Suharto, the state possessed relatively effective technocratic and bureaucratic apparatus that ensured effective control over its people and agenda. Through technocratically equipped bureaucracies the state mobilised certain kinds of discourse that, in turn, defined what was deemed proper under the banner of ethnic and religious solidarity. Second, local elites play critical roles in the process of proliferation. Moreover, in many cases their roles have reversed since the fall of the New Order. Previously, they were co-opted by the state but now, they are co-opting the state. Why is that so? The state is well aware of and even too sensitive to the potential of ethnic-based, race-motivated conflicts, as well as secession (Wellman 2005). Indeed, conflicts did take place quite extensively in Indonesia for that reason. As a result, the state opts to accomodate the interests of local elites instead of confronting them. In other words, proliferation of local government serves as a strategy for preventing political disintegration. Local autonomy is currently the best available solution to ethnic conflict in Indonesia (Bertrand 2004). Third, the proliferation of local governments confirms the importance of territoriality or territorial attachment (Kahler and Walter 2006). Territory serves as a basis for identity politics. By establishing a new set of local governments, the central government still retains territorial control and, at the same time, local activists also have an opportunity to do so.

Author(s):  
Jude Okafor

Local government is purposely established by law to provide grassroots development. In federal states, it is usually created by law of the federating units, and in unitary states it is created by central government. However, since the entrenchment of local government as a third-tier level of government in the 1979/1999 federal constitutions of Nigeria, there have been a lot of difficulties in creating new local governments. This paper examines the dynamics of this structure and the challenges posed to the orderly creation of new local government areas in Nigeria. The paper adopts secondary methods of data collection and analysis. It finds that the conflicting constitutional provisions which vest in the state and federal governments powers to create new local government areas have created many controversies in the polity. It recommends that the creation and statutory finance of local government councils in Nigeria should be expunged from the federal constitution.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Surwandono Surwandono

In the last few decades, the practice of paradiplomacy in Indonesia has increased across the country. The paradiplomacy policy was commonly conducted by local governments in Indonesia since the collapse of the centralized-New Order regime followed by political reformation in various sectors. Decentralization is the main issue that demand local government to be more active and to manage the region properly. The opportunity to boost international partners is very open under the new norm that pave the way to the practice of paradiplomacy including in the frontier areas in Indonesia. This research focuses on the thwo important areas in the frontier Indonesia namely, Riau Island, West Kalimantan and Maluku. Nevertheless, in fact, the so-called “ceremonial” paradiplomacy blatantly practiced amid of the tighten and very bureaucratic barrier including obstacles on the budget implementation. This is qualitative research with discourse analysis which so important to understand paradiplomacy practices notably in the frontier areas in Indonesia that in some extent are vulnerable to the separatism issues in the central government in Jakarta.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antung Deddy Radiansyah

Gaps in biodiversity conservation management within the Conservation Area that are the responsibility of the central government and outside the Conservation Areas or as the Essential Ecosystems Area (EEA) which are the authority of the Regional Government, have caused various spatial conflicts between wildlife /wild plants and land management activities. Several obstacles faced by the Local Government to conduct its authority to manage (EEA), caused the number and area of EEA determined by the Local Government to be still low. At present only 703,000 ha are determined from the 67 million ha indicated by EEA. This study aims to overview biodiversity conservation policies by local governments and company perceptions in implementing conservation policies and formulate strategies for optimizing the role of Local Governments. From the results of this study, there has not been found any legal umbrella for the implementation of Law number 23/ 2014 related to the conservation of important ecosystems in the regions. This regulatory vacuum leaves the local government in a dilemma for continuing various conservation programs. By using a SWOT to the internal strategic environment and external stratetegic environment of the Environment and Forestry Service, Bengkulu Province , as well as using an analysis of company perceptions of the conservation policies regulatary , this study has been formulated a “survival strategy” through collaboration between the Central Government, Local Governments and the Private Sector to optimize the role of Local Government’s to establish EEA in the regions.Keywords: Management gaps, Essential Ecosystems Area (EEA), Conservation Areas, SWOT analysis and perception analysis


e-Finanse ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-75
Author(s):  
Adam Mateusz Suchecki

AbstractFollowing the completion of the process of decentralisation of public administration in Poland in 2003, a number of tasks implemented previously by the state authorities were transferred to the local level. One of the most significant changes to the financing and management methods of the local authorities was the transfer of tasks related to culture and national heritage to the set of tasks implemented by local governments. As a result of the decentralisation process, the local government units in Poland were given significant autonomy in determining the purposes of their budgetary expenditures on culture. At the same time, they were obliged to cover these expenses from their own revenues.This paper focuses on the analysis of expenditures on culture covered by the voivodship budgets, taking into consideration the structure of cultural institutions by their types, between 2003-2015. The location quotient (LQ) was applied to two selected years (2006 and 2015) to illustrate the diversity of expenditures on culture in individual voivodships.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 389
Author(s):  
Caihua Zhou

The participation of a third party of the environmental service enterprise theoretically increases the level and efficiency of soil pollution control in China. However, Chinese-style fiscal decentralization may have a negative impact on the behaviors of participants, especially the local government. First, this paper conducts a positioning analysis on participants of the third-party soil pollution control in China and discusses the behavioral dissimilation of the local government under fiscal decentralization. Second, taking the government’s third-party soil pollution control as a case, a two-party game model of the central government and the local government is established around the principal-agent relationship, and a tripartite game model of the central government, the local government, and the third-party enterprise is designed around the collusion between the local government and the third-party enterprise. The results show that Chinese-style fiscal decentralization may lead to the behavioral dissimilation of local governments, that is, they may choose not to implement or passively implement the third-party control, and choose to conspire with third-party enterprises. Improving the benefits from implementing the third-party control of local governments and third-party enterprises, enhancing the central government’s supervision probability and capacity, and strengthening the central government’s punishment for behavioral dissimilation are conducive to the implementation of the third-party soil pollution control. Finally, this study puts forward policy suggestions on dividing the administrative powers between the central and local government in third-party control, building appraisal systems for the local government’s environmental protection performance, constructing environmental regulation mechanisms involving the government, market and society, and formulating the incentive and restraint policies for the participants in the third-party soil pollution control.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Juli Juli Juli

This study examined differences in the local government's financial performance before and after the transition from central tax BPHTB be local taxes? In general, this study aims to determine the contribution BPHTB to the PAD as a source of funding for the survival of each region in order to achieve local autonomy system. The samples used in this study is the district/city that has existed since autonomy BPHTB not be treated as 114 cities/districts. The realization of the study observation period is the period before the transition budget BPHTB (Year 2010) and after the transition BPHTB (Year 2011). The research data were statistically tested with a different test of two paired samples. The results show that the performance of local government in Java have differences before and after the transition BPHTB from the central government to local governments. This research can provide empirical evidence of the differences in the financial performance of the post-transition region from the center to the regions BPHTB especially Java. The results of this study can also be used as a reference in future studies with similar themes to consider several things. First, the use of samples that are not confined to the local government but the entire Indonesian island of Java. Second, adding the growth rate ie performance measurement. Third, review the compatibility ratio because in addition to operational expenditure and capital expenditure is no longer heading in the budget expenditure is financing and transfer.     Keywords: Bea Perolehan Hak atas Tanah dan Bangunan, Financial Performance, Autonomous Region.


Author(s):  
Shuang Ling ◽  
Shan Gao ◽  
Wenhui Liu

Despite the expectation that social media use in the public sector contributes to enhancing government's transparency, few studies have been investigated whether social media use actually leads to more disclosure during environmental incidents in practice and how social media influence local governments and their officials' information disclosure. In this article, we model information disclosure during environmental incidents as an evolutionary game process between the central government and local government in social media context, and examine the internal mechanism that how social media influence the progress of information disclosure during environmental incidents. The findings indicate that social media plays an active constructive role in central-local government game relations. Specific- ally, social media can provides an efficient information channels for the central government supervise regional officials in environmental incidents, and thus improves its supervision efficiency, and it also provides an important means for internet mobilization and online-offline interaction by encouraging the public exchange information and express their views, and in turn forces local governments and their officials tend to disclosure ahead.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Agus Subagyo

This article aims to explain the 2018-2019 state defense action plan in Presidential Instruction No. 7 of 2018 which mandates all ministries, non-ministerial government agencies, and local governments to take action to defend the country through three stages, namely the stages of socialization, internalization, and movement action. The dilution of the state defense action plan at the central government level has been very active, however, at the level of the reverent regional government it has not yet been felt, especially with the existence of regional autonomy where the central government is not necessarily able to "control" the regional government, so that all this needs attention parties, to see the perspective of the regional government in implementing the state defense action plan.


2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Dang Phuc Vu ◽  
◽  
Thi Thanh Nga Nguyen ◽  

Control of local governments in countries around the world is very diverse,but mainly divided into two categories: 1) control of state agencies (central government control, court control, control of local power representations); 2) control of social institutions including political party control over local government, control of organizations and public associations, control of the media, and control of the people. The paper focuses on analysing the controlling local governments in some countries, thereby giving reference values for Vietnam.


Yurispruden ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 208
Author(s):  
Fahrul Abrori

 ABSTRAKPandemi Covid-19 yang terjadi di Indonesia membuat pemerintah membuat kebijakan-kebijakan sebagai stimulus untuk menjaga kestabilan masyarakat dan perekonomian. Pemerintah pusat memberikan kewenangan kepada pemerintah daerah untuk mengelola keuangan daerah untuk menangani covid-19 di daerah masing-masing. Hal ini disebabkan karena pemerintah daerah lebih memahami kebutuhan daerahnya. Permasalahan yang diangkat Pertama, bagaimana hubungan Pemerintah Pusat dan Pemerintah Daerah dalam pengelolaan keuangan untuk penanganan pandemi Covid-19? Kedua, Apa peran Pemerintah Daerah dalam pengelolaan keuangan daerah untuk penanganan pandemi Covid-19? Menggunakan metode penelitian yuridis normatif dengan pendekatan perundang-undangan dan pendekatan konsep. Hubungan Pemerintah Pusat dan Pemerintah Daerah dalam Pengelolaan Keuangan untuk Penanganan Pandemi Covid-19 yaitu desentralisasi fiskal yang mana. Peran Pemerintah Daerah dalam Pengelolaan Keuangan Daerah untuk Penanganan Pandemi Covid-19 yaitu dengan melakukan refocusing kegiatan, realokasi anggaran, dan Penggunaan Anggaran Pendapatan dan Belanja Daerah.Kata kunci: Pemerintah Daerah, Pengelolaan Keuangan Daerah, Pandemi Covid-19 ABSTRACTThe Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia led the government to make policies as a stimulus to maintain the stability of society and the economy. The central government authorizes local governments to manage local finances to deal with covid-19 in their respective regions. This is because the local government better understands the needs of the region. The issue raised first, how is the relationship between the Central Government and Local Government in financial management for the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic? Second, What is the role of local governments in regional financial management for the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic? Using normative juridical research methods with statutory approaches and concept approaches. The relationship between the Central Government and Local Government in Financial Management for the Handling of the Covid-19 Pandemic is fiscal decentralization. The role of local governments in regional financial management for the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic is by refocusing activities, reallocating budgets, and using regional budgets.Keywords: Local Government, Regional Financial Management, Covid-19 Pandemic


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