Sobari, Wawan
(2016)
Politically Equal But Still
Underrepresented: Women And Local
Democratic Politics In Indonesia.
International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (IJAPS), 12 (1).
pp. 61-92.
ISSN ISSN: 1823-6243
Abstract
This research challenges the relevance of a change towards liberal democracy for
gender equality. In particular, it connects the political logic of the survival and
failure of incumbents in the direct election for local leaders (pilkada) with the
acceptance of gender related considerations in local policies and women
preferences in voting. By carrying out comparative assessments concerning the
pilkada in four rural and urban districts in East Java, the study reveals that local
democracy does not provide incentives which encourage the incumbents who run
in re-election bids to promote better gendered policies during their terms in office
due to women's ignorance in voting. Female voters were less critical in reviewing
the incumbents' performance. Women were too busy receiving tangible policy
outputs; they paid inadequate attention to the importance of strategic gender
interests. Consequently, incumbents who perform better in reducing gender
disparity often lose their posts. Worse, during local democratic contests, women
were marginalised by the practices of male-dominated informal politics amongst
the incumbents, informal actors and partisan bureaucrats. Also, the pilkada is not
an easy race for women's candidacy, as the regulations do not affirm women and
political parties hinge on pragmatic considerations that favour male candidates
as having a better chance of winning in election. Moreover, this study challenges
the arguments of decentralisation policy that have led to the negligence of local
government concerning a gender-mainstreaming agenda. In fact, the
decentralisation regulatory regime overwhelmingly controlled by the national
government has restricted local governments from better addressing gender
strategic needs. The national authority strictly determines local expenditure items,
which do not incorporate gender mainstreaming approaches in local budgeting.
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