The Paradox of Distance in Decentralized Indonesia

One of the most important promises of decentralization is to bring government closer to the people through improved public services and decision making. In contrast to this promise, the implementation of decentralization in Indonesia seems to create farther distance between government and the people...

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Main Author: Gabriel Lele
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universitas Gadjah Mada 2012-03-01
Series:JSP: Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik
Subjects:
Online Access:https://jurnal.ugm.ac.id/jsp/article/view/10916
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author Gabriel Lele
author_facet Gabriel Lele
author_sort Gabriel Lele
collection DOAJ
description One of the most important promises of decentralization is to bring government closer to the people through improved public services and decision making. In contrast to this promise, the implementation of decentralization in Indonesia seems to create farther distance between government and the people resulting in the paradox of distance. This article argues that the paradox of distance in decentralized Indonesia is institutionally engineered. It is due mainly to unclear mechanisms for the people to hold government accountable and this stems from two main factors. The first one refers to the politics of functional assignment between central and local governments which benefits central government more than local government. The second factor is the macro institutional arrangements on the relationships between local government and the people where there is almost no way for local people to hold their government accountable or punish the underperformed local government. This article recommends significant transformation in the way the central government manages functional assignment to enable local governments to be more responsive to local people as well as reform of key political arrangements to make them more responsive and accountable to local people.
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spelling doaj.art-a8c6e34bb1134478bd7912f110f4e1e52022-12-21T18:35:14ZengUniversitas Gadjah MadaJSP: Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik1410-49462502-78832012-03-0115322023110.22146/jsp.109168711The Paradox of Distance in Decentralized IndonesiaGabriel Lele0Universitas Gadjah MadaOne of the most important promises of decentralization is to bring government closer to the people through improved public services and decision making. In contrast to this promise, the implementation of decentralization in Indonesia seems to create farther distance between government and the people resulting in the paradox of distance. This article argues that the paradox of distance in decentralized Indonesia is institutionally engineered. It is due mainly to unclear mechanisms for the people to hold government accountable and this stems from two main factors. The first one refers to the politics of functional assignment between central and local governments which benefits central government more than local government. The second factor is the macro institutional arrangements on the relationships between local government and the people where there is almost no way for local people to hold their government accountable or punish the underperformed local government. This article recommends significant transformation in the way the central government manages functional assignment to enable local governments to be more responsive to local people as well as reform of key political arrangements to make them more responsive and accountable to local people.https://jurnal.ugm.ac.id/jsp/article/view/10916decentralizationinstitutionparadox of distancefunctional assignmentdesentralisasiinstitusi
spellingShingle Gabriel Lele
The Paradox of Distance in Decentralized Indonesia
JSP: Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik
decentralization
institution
paradox of distance
functional assignment
desentralisasi
institusi
title The Paradox of Distance in Decentralized Indonesia
title_full The Paradox of Distance in Decentralized Indonesia
title_fullStr The Paradox of Distance in Decentralized Indonesia
title_full_unstemmed The Paradox of Distance in Decentralized Indonesia
title_short The Paradox of Distance in Decentralized Indonesia
title_sort paradox of distance in decentralized indonesia
topic decentralization
institution
paradox of distance
functional assignment
desentralisasi
institusi
url https://jurnal.ugm.ac.id/jsp/article/view/10916
work_keys_str_mv AT gabriellele theparadoxofdistanceindecentralizedindonesia
AT gabriellele paradoxofdistanceindecentralizedindonesia