Regional Autonomy in Process: A Case Study in Bali 2001-2003

抄録

The collapse of Suharto’s New Order regime led to vast socio-political changes in Indonesia, and the political slogan of “regional autonomy” became, and remains, one of the most important keywords characterizing the post-Suharto era.

This paper analyzes some provisional results of the ongoing decentralization policies of the domestic government system and the accompanying changes at the provincial, district and village levels. The first section summarizes the structural and financial changes in provincial and district government which took place in the first year of the enforcement of the two laws formulated under the new regional autonomy plan, presenting and analyzing data from the Bali provincial office and the Gianyar district office. The second section presents a comparison of the national and district regulations (of Gianyar in Bali and of Agam in West Sumatra) on the new village government system, and discusses the expected progress in village level democracy. The third section focuses on the Balinese traditional village system, which needs to be restructured in accordance with the newly established village government. The final section discusses the ongoing process of democratization of traditional village administration in the broader context of modernization.