Authors:
Bejo Untung
1
and
Semiarto A. Purwanto
2
Affiliations:
1
Program Manager, PATTIRO, Indonesia
;
2
Department of Anthropology, University of Indonesia, Indonesia
Keyword(s):
village law, social mobility, local political actors, West Java, Indonesia
Abstract:
The paper will describe the history of inequality of state-society relations in Indonesia through case studies on current village politics and governance. For decades, during the New Order, the villages became became subordinate to the state. The forms of leadership, recruitment, and succession, for example, are regulated by the state through the Village Law No. 5/1979. When the law was changed by the new Village Law No. 22/1999, the villager’s participation in village administration was rising, among others through village council or Badan Permusyawaratan Desa. Five years later the Law was amended by the newer Village Law No. 6/2004 which is believed will make village democracy better. Through ethnographic observations, we finds out how the state agenda outlined in the formal rules govern the existing political structure at the village level. Our study in Pabuaran Village, Sukamakmur District, Bogor Regency, West Java, shows the rise of elite capture, elite control, and the dynamics
of actors that are often different from the formal regulations. The political situation at the national level and the interconnection of villages with urban areas we consider very instrumental in promoting vertical mobility at the village level.
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