The role of Indonesian Think Tanks as policy entrepreneurs in policy development of village governance

ABSTRACT

The role of Indonesian think tanks as policy entrepreneurs is evolving as the government has become more open to the involvement of non-state actors.They are non-partisan, groups of intellectual, and have the power to determine their own research agenda, policy focus, and public purpose. Using the case study of the poverty alleviation-oriented Village Law, this paper examines how Indonesian think tank as policy entrepreneur influenced policymakers in the development processes. This paper also explores how think tanks interact with government institutions, parliament, universities, media, interest groups, civil society, and NGOs to create policy networks and achieve policy change.

KEYWORDS:

• Think tanks
• policy entrepreneurs
• villages
• poverty alleviation
• non-governmental organizations
• Indonesia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Executive Office of the Indonesian President is an ad hoc body directly under and report to President of Indonesia. It was created by President Joko Widodo in 2014 and its primary task is to provide support and assistance to President of Indonesia on controlling national priority programs, politics, and strategic issues.

2. Bappenas is the National Development Planning Agency or the Ministry of National Development Planning. Since President Joko Widodo, Bappenas is one of the executive ministries directly under and report to him. Previously, it was under the supervision of the Coordinating Ministry.

3. It stands for the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction, an ad hoc body under the Vice President. It was established in 2010 to promote coordination across ministries/agencies to improve the implementation of poverty reduction programmes, improve the living standards of the poor and vulnerable, as well as reduce inequality among income groups.

4. It literally stands for Research and Development Agencies at the Ministries. In accordance with the Presidential Regulation No. 7/2015 on the Organizational Ministries stipulates that Balitbangs is a supporting the agency under the Minister to produce the policy research for their respective ministries.

5. https://news.detik.com/kolom/d-3,614,615/institut-institut-mantan-presiden

6. Virtual interview

7. Virtual Interview

8. Virtual interview

9. Virtual Interview

10. See IRE website: https://www.ireyogya.org/

11. Virtual Interview

12. Virtual Interview

13. www.bps.go.id/pressrelease/2018/07/16/1483/persentase-penduduk-miskin-maret-2018-turun-menjadi-9-82-persen.html

14. Virtual interview

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Iskhak Fatonie

Iskhak Fatonie is a visiting scholar at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, the United States, since 2018. He is also a Vice President of Humanities and Social Science Association, University of California, Berkeley, the United States. Over the past 12 years he has worked with national and subnational Indonesian government agencies to provide technical support in the area of public administration and public policy. He obtained his Ph.D in Political Science from the University of Vienna, Austria in 2011. His research interests include public policy, policy analysis, public administration, bureaucracy reform, and decentralisation.