TY - JOUR
T1 - Decentralised Governance in Indonesia’s Disadvantaged Regions
T2 - A Critique of the Underperforming Model of Local Governance in Eastern Indonesia
AU - Shoesmith, Dennis
AU - Franklin, Nathan
AU - Hidayat, Rachmat
N1 - Funding Information:
Research was conducted in 2016?2017 by a team from Charles Darwin University (CDU), in Darwin, northern Australia, and Nusa Cendana University (UNDANA), in Kupang, NTT. The research team was composed of Dr. Dennis Shoesmith and Dr. Nathan Franklin of Charles Darwin University, Dr. Rachmat Hidayat from the University of Jember (then a doctoral student at CDU), and Professor I Wayan Mudita, Professor Welhelmus Mella, and Stephanie Nina Lawalu of Nusa Cendana University (UNDANA) in Kupang. The authors wish to express their special thanks to Professor Fred Benu, Rector of Nusa Cendana University in Kupang, and to Professor I Wayan Mudita, Vice-Rector, for their generous and practical support for the project. The research was funded by Charles Darwin University with practical support and staff involvement from Nusa Cendana University. The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/11/26
Y1 - 2020/11/26
N2 - This article investigates the challenges facing decentralised governance in poor and underdeveloped areas in Eastern Indonesia. The Timor Tengah Selatan (TTS) regency in West Timor in Nusa Tenggara Timur province is taken as a case study. Indonesia’s radical decentralisation programme applied a national model of decentralised governance, not taking into account the different conditions applying to disadvantaged regions (daerah tertinggal, DRs). In the TTS regency, decentralised governance is underperforming in two core areas – administration and fiscal viability – while making some progress in political decentralisation. Governance is restricted by limited social capacity, a poor resource base, and a lack of investment capital and infrastructure. The question then arises: if the uniform model of decentralisation is not performing adequately in TTS, is there a more appropriate model of local governance and central subnational relations that can better perform in DRs? While not detailing the features of a new model, this article identifies the areas requiring policy development.
AB - This article investigates the challenges facing decentralised governance in poor and underdeveloped areas in Eastern Indonesia. The Timor Tengah Selatan (TTS) regency in West Timor in Nusa Tenggara Timur province is taken as a case study. Indonesia’s radical decentralisation programme applied a national model of decentralised governance, not taking into account the different conditions applying to disadvantaged regions (daerah tertinggal, DRs). In the TTS regency, decentralised governance is underperforming in two core areas – administration and fiscal viability – while making some progress in political decentralisation. Governance is restricted by limited social capacity, a poor resource base, and a lack of investment capital and infrastructure. The question then arises: if the uniform model of decentralisation is not performing adequately in TTS, is there a more appropriate model of local governance and central subnational relations that can better perform in DRs? While not detailing the features of a new model, this article identifies the areas requiring policy development.
KW - Indonesia
KW - decentralisation
KW - governance in disadvantaged regions
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101996239&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1868103420963140
DO - 10.1177/1868103420963140
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85101996239
SN - 1868-1034
VL - 39
SP - 359
EP - 380
JO - Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs
JF - Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs
IS - 3
ER -