Politics in Public Policy Formulation: A Case Study of Infrastructure Policy of the Local Government in One District of Lower Northern Province

Abstract

This article is part of the study titled Politics in Public Policy Formation: A Case Study of Infrastructure Policy of the Local Government in One District of Lower Northern Province. The purposes of this study were 1) to investigate the process of public policy formation, 2) to examine political factors affecting the process of public policy formation, 3) to analyze the problems and obstacles from political factors in public policy formation, and 4) to propose solutions to problems from political factors in public policy formulation of the local government. In-depth interview, as well as documenting and interpretation method were used to examine triangulation, and qualitative data analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that under local decentralization, people were involved in public policy formation at local level through the local community process. However, interesting issues were found from the findings-factors influencing decision-making in local public policy formation are as follows:     

          1) Internal political factors, the decision-making in the local council; local politicians, as representatives of the people in each constituency, struggle to compete for public policy to enter their own territory as they have been campaigned and, of course, the work of politicians is a reflection of the chances that politicians will be elected in the next election. In the end, this will affect the overall image of all local governments in the district.

          2) External political factors due to the integration of local interest groups, such as the groups of village health volunteer, elderly, and local businesses; these groups are closely related to local politicians and they are all local interest groups that are scrambling to find and exploit through negotiation, pressure, intervention in the decision of politicians.

          As a result, the public policy formation process does not meet the intentions, needs, and solve problems in the area. However, it is mainly for the benefit of politicians. It is therefore necessary to improve the law on the powers of the executive and the legislature by having an intense process of monitoring power balance, including roles in monitoring and oversight of regional governments, such as provincial and district governments, along with the development of local politics as a model of deliberative democracy. It is also necessary to promote knowledge and cultivate values for the people.