TY - JOUR
T1 - Does Local Democratization Improve Societal Outcomes? Effects of Mayoral Direct Elections in Indonesia
AU - Lurusati, Yasmin
AU - Torenvlied, René
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors extend their appreciation to the SPIRIT Bappenas Indonesia and the World Bank through research fund no (No. 800/PIU-SPIRIT/06/2014 and No. 8010-ID).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, Springer Nature Limited.
Financial transaction number:
2500096684
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Local democratization aims to improve the decentralized capacity of governance regimes to generate meaningful municipal spending geared towards realizing societal outcomes. In the late 1990s, following the Asian financial crisis, Indonesia initiated a significant institutional transition from centralistic and authoritarian rule towards decentralized and more democratic governance through the introduction of direct mayoral elections. Extant research analyzed the effects of the introduction of these elections on local public spending and local societal outcomes separately. This paper offers an integrated analysis of the impact of the introduction of direct mayoral elections on both local public spending and local societal outcomes in 456 Indonesian municipalities between 2002 and 2012. Analyses of growth models, using panel data on three domains (education, health, and infrastructure) provided by Indonesian Ministry of Finance, Indonesian Ministry of Home Affairs, and Statistics Indonesia, show that the introduction of direct mayoral elections in Indonesia resulted in an increased growth in educational expenditures. It also improved outcomes in health and infrastructure domains. However, the introduction of direct mayoral elections reversed a positive association between public spending and the attainment of societal outcomes or worsened a negative association between them. These results would support a view on local democratization in Indonesia asserting that the introduction of direct mayoral elections stimulated local clientelist practices rather than local accountability and policy responsiveness.
AB - Local democratization aims to improve the decentralized capacity of governance regimes to generate meaningful municipal spending geared towards realizing societal outcomes. In the late 1990s, following the Asian financial crisis, Indonesia initiated a significant institutional transition from centralistic and authoritarian rule towards decentralized and more democratic governance through the introduction of direct mayoral elections. Extant research analyzed the effects of the introduction of these elections on local public spending and local societal outcomes separately. This paper offers an integrated analysis of the impact of the introduction of direct mayoral elections on both local public spending and local societal outcomes in 456 Indonesian municipalities between 2002 and 2012. Analyses of growth models, using panel data on three domains (education, health, and infrastructure) provided by Indonesian Ministry of Finance, Indonesian Ministry of Home Affairs, and Statistics Indonesia, show that the introduction of direct mayoral elections in Indonesia resulted in an increased growth in educational expenditures. It also improved outcomes in health and infrastructure domains. However, the introduction of direct mayoral elections reversed a positive association between public spending and the attainment of societal outcomes or worsened a negative association between them. These results would support a view on local democratization in Indonesia asserting that the introduction of direct mayoral elections stimulated local clientelist practices rather than local accountability and policy responsiveness.
U2 - 10.1057/s41599-023-02141-8
DO - 10.1057/s41599-023-02141-8
M3 - Article
SN - 2662-9992
VL - 10
SP - 1
EP - 13
JO - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
JF - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
M1 - 658
ER -