Written by: Farisa Noviyanti
Abstrak
Tulisan ini menganalisis reformasi kebijakan desentralisasi fiskal di Indonesia melalui kacamata Teori Keseimbangan Bersela (Punctuated Equilibrium Theory - PET). Selama dua dekade, desentralisasi fiskal Indonesia ditandai oleh kenaikan dana transfer secara bertahap (inkremental) kepada pemerintah daerah. Namun, kebijakan ini gagal meningkatkan kemandirian daerah secara signifikan, mengatasi ketimpangan vertikal dan horizontal, menekan inefisiensi belanja, maupun meningkatkan kualitas pelayanan publik. Pandemi COVID-19 menjadi katalisator yang mendorong perubahan kebijakan yang signifikan sejak tahun 2021. "Selaan" (punctuation) ini melibatkan pergeseran dari alokasi proporsional ke alokasi berbasis kinerja, yang didukung oleh pengesahan Undang-Undang No. 1 Tahun 2022. Tulisan ini berargumen bahwa pergeseran dari stabilitas jangka panjang (keseimbangan) ke perubahan cepat dan substansial (selaan) ini sejalan dengan prinsip-prinsip utama PET. Hal ini menunjukkan bagaimana pemerintah pusat memprioritaskan kembali agenda kebijakannya sebagai respons terhadap akumulasi masalah dan sebuah peristiwa kritis. Meskipun demikian, tulisan ini juga mengidentifikasi beberapa tantangan dalam menerapkan PET pada kasus Indonesia, termasuk kesulitan dalam mengidentifikasi subsistem kebijakan di luar pemerintah, terbatasnya peluang "pencarian gelanggang" (venue shopping), kompleksitas dalam melacak pembingkaian kebijakan (framing), serta keterbatasan PET dalam menjelaskan penyebab spesifik dari friksi dan mengevaluasi hasil kebijakan.
Abstract
This paper analyzes Indonesia's fiscal decentralization policy reform through the lens of Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET). For two decades, Indonesia's fiscal decentralization was characterized by incremental increases in transfer funds to local governments. However, this policy failed to significantly improve regional autonomy, address vertical and horizontal inequalities, curb spending inefficiencies, or enhance public service quality. The COVID-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst, prompting a significant policy shift since 2021. This "punctuation" involved a move from proportional funding to a performance-based allocation, supported by the enactment of Law No. 1 of 2022. The paper argues that this shift from long-term stability (equilibrium) to rapid, substantial change (punctuation) aligns with the core tenets of PET. It demonstrates how the central government reprioritized its policy agenda in response to accumulated problems and a critical event. Nevertheless, the paper also identifies several challenges in applying PET to the Indonesian case, including difficulties in identifying non-governmental policy subsystems, limited "venue shopping" opportunities, the complexity of tracking policy framing, and PET's limitations in explaining the specific causes of friction and evaluating policy outcomes.
A. Introduction
Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET) portrays an essential feature of agenda-setting theory in policy-making that links the missing element of incremental theory. It is characterised by two contradictory features: equilibrium and punctuation. In PET, policy processes change in slow-moving processes for an extended period of stability, but frequently significant change occurs in a short period (Baumgartner & Jones, 1993). The theory demonstrates how governments process information that might influence how they react to address some issues. Besides, the elements of an organisation can cause friction among key stakeholders that can affect dramatic change and break down the status quo (Jones & Baumgartner, 2005). While it was initially developed to explain changes in legislation in the United States, PET was established as a general empirical law of the public budget and expanded to analyse budgetary changes in various countries (Baumgartner et al., 2017; Jones et al., 2009).
Reflecting on PET as theoretical background, Indonesia has established a modest change in fiscal decentralisation policy for two decades with the increasing annual allocation of transfer funds provided to local governments. Consequently, this pattern has led to a high portion of transfer funds accounting for around 50 percent of total government spending in 2020 (Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia, 2023). However, the impacts of the policy are still less than sufficient (Lewis, 2023). Thus, since 2021, after the COVID-19 pandemic, Indonesia has been implementing a significant change in fiscal decentralisation policy, reflected in a decline in transfer fund growth and the switch from proportional allocation to performance policy (Fiscal Policy Agency of the Republic of Indonesia, 2021). This change is followed by the creation of Law No. 1 of 2022 as the new framework of Indonesian fiscal decentralisation policy (Chatta et al., 2023).
Furthermore, based on this case, this paper will first identify policy problems, critical actors involved, and solutions undertaken by the central government to address the problems. In the next section, this paper will discuss the concepts of incrementalism and PET to analyse fiscal decentralisation and budgetary change. Finally, this paper will explore challenges in using PET to understand Indonesia's fiscal decentralisation policy reform.
Full Article :
