RETRACTED: Democracy and local political participation in Sumedang, Indonesia

• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Author: Yusa Djuyandi,Wawan Budi Darmawan, Jumroh
• Date: 01 February 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2726

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Democracy and local political participation

in Sumedang, Indonesia

Yusa Djuyandi

1

| Wawan Budi Darmawan

1

| Jumroh

2

1

Department of Political Science, Universitas

Padjadjaran, Sumedang, Indonesia

2

Department of Public Administration,

Sjakhyakirti University, Palembang, Indonesia

Correspondence

Yusa Djuyandi, Department of Political

Science, Universitas Padjadjaran, 45363,

Jl. Raya Bandung-Sumedang KM

21, Sumedang, Indonesia.

Email: djuyandi6853@kpi.com.de

Indonesia is a country that implements a democratic political system. As such, the

involvement of society in the political process becomes very important. The purpose

of this article is to research the democracy and local political participation in Sum-

edang. The study uses qualitative methods with primary data obtained from field

observations and direct interviews of several informants. Additionally, the

researchers use secondary data as a complement to the analysis. The results of this

study indicate that the community at the local level truly understands the importance

of political participation. However, due to disappointment in government perfor-

mance, a part of the community has become discouraged from participating in the

political process conducted by local governments. Several factors hinder efforts to

encourage political participation. These include limited access to political aspirations

that are still rare and the process of political education that is still low.

KEYWORDS

corruption, development process, political system, public participation, reform process

1|INTRODUCTION

Democracy is built based on a government chosen from the people,

by the people, and for the people (Djuyandi, 2018). Since democracy

requires the participation of the people, an absence of political activity

or participation will harm the democratic process. The indicator of a

democratic political system in a country is the implementation of the

general elections (Nursyamsi, 2015). Through the elections, people

are not only choosing their leader and representatives who will sit in

the government bodies, but they are also actively evaluating them

(Antoniuk, 2019; Kalashnikova, 2019). Active evaluation by the com-

munity also determines the sustainability of the political career of a

person in the government. In other words, one's position in the next

elections, whether as a leader or as a representative of the people, will

be determined from the results of the public evaluation.

The democratic process at the local level enables local people to

participate more actively in the political process, this process encour-

ages political institutions at the regional level to become more demo-

cratic institutions (Mariana & Husin, 2017). Democracy also has a

strong connection with decentralization activities, where at the local

scale it involves several political issues, such as fiscal and political

decentralization, improving the quality of public services, control of

government institutions at the regional level, local resources, and pov-

erty alleviation (Dahinden, 2013). Because the people are the holders

of the highest sovereignty, they have the freedom to influence the

policies that are being formulated or implemented by the government.

However, the same should be done in an orderly manner (Djuyandi,

2018; Joyce, 2015).

The reform process in Indonesia has brought so many changes to

the implementation of the general elections. At first, people can only

choose political parties. However, after entering the reform era, they

can now directly vote for legislative members and even the president.

Similarly, the position of regional heads from those previously elected

by the Regional People's Legislative Assembly (DPRD) can now be

determined after the reform era. Thus, in 2005, regional heads were

directly elected by the people. Local elections (Pilkada) that are

directly held embody the spirit of reform and democratization at the

local level. At the beginning of the local elections, people are very

enthusiastic about welcoming and participating in the elections. This

was due to their great expectations for the local leaders who emerged

from their regions (indigenous people). This was likewise brought

about by the people's understanding of the needs of the community.

Received: 5 April 2021 Revised: 23 June 2021 Accepted: 9 July 2021

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2726

J Public Affairs. 2023;23:e2726. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1of6

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2726

Retracted