Promoting Participatory Budgeting Practices in Indonesia: Lessons from Malang City
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Abstract
This study aims to analyze community participation in the process of development planning and APBD formulation in Malang City. This research uses a qualitative approach and the data is sourced from document studies, literature studies and in-depth interviews with informants selected by a purposive method. The results show that even though the process of dialogues in the implementation of Musrenbang RKPD has been well involving various elements of society in order to plan the development of the regions, the final decision remains dominant in the government hands. Moreover, the spaces of community participation in the post-musrenbang stage are also known to be inadequate. There are four factors hampering the community participation: low political commitments of the government elites, not yet optimal channels of the community participation, less supportive government bureaucrats, and lack of public awareness. There are four strategic efforts to strengthen the community participation: provide political education to civil society, implement the community aspiration ceiling in the Musrenbang RKPD, form the community forum in the post-musrenbang stage, and implement a public planning and budgeting system that supports the principles of good governance.
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WISNU PRADANA, Aditya.
Promoting Participatory Budgeting Practices in Indonesia: Lessons from Malang City.
Policy & Governance Review, [S.l.], v. 6, n. 3, p. 297-313, sep. 2022.
ISSN 2580-4820.
Available at: <https://journal.iapa.or.id/pgr/article/view/613>. Date accessed: 30 apr. 2026.
doi: https://doi.org/10.30589/pgr.v6i3.613.
Section
Articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
References
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Aiyar, Y., & Behar, A. (2005). Budget work in India: civil society experiments in democratic engagement. Economic and Political Weekly, 40(2), 108â€"112.
Antlöv, H., Brinkerhoff, D. W., & Rapp, E. (2010). Civil society capacity building for democratic refor m: exper ience and les s ons f rom Indonesia. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 21(3), 417â€"439. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-010-9140-x.
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Boehmke, F. J., & Skinner, P. (2012). State policy innovativeness revisited. State Politics and Policy Quarterly, 12(3), 303â€"329. https:// doi.org/10.1177/1532440012438890.
Bowler, S., & Donovan, T. (2004). Measuring the effect of direct democracy on state policy: not all initiatives are created equal. State Politics and Policy Quarterly, 4(3), 345â€"363.
Brodjonegoro, B., & Asanuma, S. (2000). Regional autonomy and fiscal decentralization in democratic Indonesia. Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, 41(2), 111â€"122.
Bruce, I. (2004). The Porto Alegre alternative: direct democracy in action. London: Pluto Press.
Buchholz, R. A., & Rosenthal, S. B. (2004). Stakeholder theory and public policy: how governments matter. Journal of Business Ethics, 51(2), 143â€"153.
Bunnell, T., Miller, M. A., Phelps, N. A., & Taylor, J. (2013). Urban development in a decentralized Indonesia: two success stories? Pacific Affairs, 86(4), 857â€"876. https://doi.org/10.5509/2013864857.
Cabannes, Y. (2014). Contribution of participatory budgets to the democratization of local government. Research Report on Contribution of Participatory Budgeting to Provision and Management of Basic Services: Municipal Practices and Evidence from The Field, International Institute for Environment and Development.
Coglianese, C., and Walters, D. E. (2016). Agenda- setting in the regulatory state: theory and evidence. Administrative Law Review, 68(1),93â€"118.
Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). California: Sage Publication.
de Soysa , A. (2022). W h at is par t icipat or y budgeting? Research Report of Participatory Budgeting: Public Participation Budget Processes Transparency International.
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Goldfrank, B. (2006). Lessons from Latin America’s experience with participatory budgeting. Presented at the Latin American Studies Association Meeting at San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Gret, M., & Sintomer, Y. (2005). The Porto Alegre experiment: learning lessons for better democracy. London: Zed Books.
Haltofova, B. (2018). Fostering community engagement through crowdsourcing: case study on participatory budgeting. Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, 13(1), 5â€"12.
Heilmann, S., and Melton, O. (2013). The reinvention of development planning in China, 1993â€"2012. Modern China, 39(6), 580â€"628. https://doi.org/10.1177/0097700413497551.
Howlett, M. (2014). From the “old†to the “new†policy design: design thinking beyond markets and collaborative governance. Policy Sciences, 47(3), 187â€"207. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-014-9199-0.
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Manghayu, A. (2018). Participatory development planning in the implementation of e-musrenbang. Jurnal Manajemen Pembangunan, 5(2), 95â€"115.
Meloeng , L. (2007). Qualitative research method; revised edition. Bandung: Remaja Rosdakarya.
Nascimento, S., Iglesias, J. M. R., Owen, R., Schade, S., & Shanley, L. (2018). Citizen science for policy formulation and implementation. In S. Hecker, M. Haklay, A. Bowser, Z. Makuch, J. Vogel, & A. Bonn (Eds.), Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy. London: University College London Press.
Nasution, A. (2016). Government decentralization program in Indonesia. Asian Development Bank Working Institute
Neldysavrino, S., Komarudin, H., & Siagian, Y. (2007). Are community aspiration being accommodated in development plans? a lesson from collective action in Jambi. Center for International Forestry Research
Neshkova, M. I. & Guo, H. D. (2012). Public participation and organizational performance: evidence from state agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 22(2), 267â€"288. https://doi. org/10.1093/jopart/mur038.
Neuman, W. L. (2003). Social Research Methods. London: Pearsons.
Noveriyanto, B., Nisa, L. C., Bahtiar, A. S., Sahri, & Irwansyah. (2018). E-government as a government communicatin service in Surabaya City: study of e-government maturity as a communication service for government to government, government to citizen and government to business (trans.). Profetik Jurnal Komunikasi, 11(1), 37â€"53.
Parker, G. and Murray, C. (2012). Beyond tokenism? community-l ed pl anning and rational choices: findings from participants in local agenda-setting at the neighbourhood scale in England. The Town Planning Review, 83(1), 1â€"28. https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.2012.1.
Patton. (1990). Qualitative and research method. California: Sage Publication.
Perry, M. S. (2015). Four dimensions of democracy. Essays in Philosophy, 16(1), 3â€"25.
Pradana, A. W. (2018). Analysis of community participation in the development planning and APBD formulation of Malang City for fiscal year 2017. Post-Graduate Thesis at Faculty of Administrative Sciences, University of Indonesia.
Pradana, A. W. (2021). Decentralization practice in developing countries: lessons for Indonesia. Journal of Governance, 6(2), 319â€"339. https://doi.org/10.31506/jog.v6i2.12662.
Prasodjo, E. (2003). Problems and perspectives of political decentralization in Indonesia. In I. J. Pialang, D. Ramdani, A. Pribadi, & F. Basri (Eds.), Regional Autonomy: Evaluation and Projection. Jakarta: Yayasan Harkat Bangsa.
Rahayu, S. N. (2019). E-government innovation in regional development planning: effectiveness of e-musrenbang in Jakarta. Jurnal Administrasi Dan Kebijakan Publik, 9(1), 1â€"26.
Rubbin, A. and Babbie, E. (2008). Research methods for social works (6th ed.). California: Thomson Brooks-Cole Publishing.
Shah, A. (2007). Participatory budgeting: public sector governance and accountabilit y . Washington: The World Bank.
Sopanah, A. (2009). Community participation model in the preparation of regional budget. The 2nd Public Sector Finance Research Conference at Jakarta, Indonesia.
Sutrisna, H. M. (2012). Community participation in regional development planning: a case study on community involvement in the process of developing development programs in Malang City. Undergraduate Thesis at Faculty of Administrative Sciences, University of Brawijaya.
Wampler, B. (2007). Participatory budgeting in Brazil: contestation, cooperation and accountability. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Wampler, B. (2008). When does participatory democracy deepen the quality of democracy? lessons from Brazil. Comparative Politics, 41(1), 61â€"81.
Wasistiono, S. and P ol y ando, P. (2017). D ecentralization politics in Indonesia . Institut Pemerintahan Dalam Negeri Press.
Weale, A. (2004). Politics as collective choice. In A. Leftwich (Ed.), What Is Politics? The Activity and Its Study. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Yunas, N. S. (2017). The effectiveness of the e-musrenbang in the Surabaya City in the development planning system with a community paradigm. Jurnal Ilmu Pemerintahan, 7(1), 19â€"27. Retrieved from http://journal.unismuh.ac.id/index.php/ otoritas.
Yunas, N. S. (2020). Implementation of e-government in minimizing the practice of rent seeking behavior in the government bureaucracy of Surabaya Cit y. Matr a Pembaruan, 4 (1), 13â€"23. https://doi.org/10.21787/mp.4.1.2020.13-23.
Ackoff, R. L. (1977). National development planning revisited. Operations Research, 25(2), 207â€"218.
Afonso, W. B. (2017). Citizens engaging government: participatory budget ing in Greensboro, North Carolina. Public Administration Quarterly, 41(1), 7â€"42.
Afrizal. (2003). Public participation in the drafting of laws: case studies of the law of foundation and the law of broadcasting. Post-Graduate Thesis at Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia.
Aiyar, Y., & Behar, A. (2005). Budget work in India: civil society experiments in democratic engagement. Economic and Political Weekly, 40(2), 108â€"112.
Antlöv, H., Brinkerhoff, D. W., & Rapp, E. (2010). Civil society capacity building for democratic refor m: exper ience and les s ons f rom Indonesia. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 21(3), 417â€"439. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-010-9140-x.
Blair, R. (2004). Public participation and community development: the role of strategic planning. Public Administration Quarterly, 28(1), 102â€"147.
Boehmke, F. J., & Skinner, P. (2012). State policy innovativeness revisited. State Politics and Policy Quarterly, 12(3), 303â€"329. https:// doi.org/10.1177/1532440012438890.
Bowler, S., & Donovan, T. (2004). Measuring the effect of direct democracy on state policy: not all initiatives are created equal. State Politics and Policy Quarterly, 4(3), 345â€"363.
Brodjonegoro, B., & Asanuma, S. (2000). Regional autonomy and fiscal decentralization in democratic Indonesia. Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, 41(2), 111â€"122.
Bruce, I. (2004). The Porto Alegre alternative: direct democracy in action. London: Pluto Press.
Buchholz, R. A., & Rosenthal, S. B. (2004). Stakeholder theory and public policy: how governments matter. Journal of Business Ethics, 51(2), 143â€"153.
Bunnell, T., Miller, M. A., Phelps, N. A., & Taylor, J. (2013). Urban development in a decentralized Indonesia: two success stories? Pacific Affairs, 86(4), 857â€"876. https://doi.org/10.5509/2013864857.
Cabannes, Y. (2014). Contribution of participatory budgets to the democratization of local government. Research Report on Contribution of Participatory Budgeting to Provision and Management of Basic Services: Municipal Practices and Evidence from The Field, International Institute for Environment and Development.
Coglianese, C., and Walters, D. E. (2016). Agenda- setting in the regulatory state: theory and evidence. Administrative Law Review, 68(1),93â€"118.
Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). California: Sage Publication.
de Soysa , A. (2022). W h at is par t icipat or y budgeting? Research Report of Participatory Budgeting: Public Participation Budget Processes Transparency International.
Fadri, Z. (2020). Community development alternative to the democratic participatory model. Alfuad Journal, 4(2), 27â€"39. Retrieved from http://ecampus.iainbatusangkar.ac.id/ojs/index.php/alfuad
Fung, A. and Wright, E. O. (2001). Deepening democracy: innovations in empowered participatory governance. Politics and Society, 29(1), 5â€"41.
Goldfrank, B. (2006). Lessons from Latin America’s experience with participatory budgeting. Presented at the Latin American Studies Association Meeting at San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Gret, M., & Sintomer, Y. (2005). The Porto Alegre experiment: learning lessons for better democracy. London: Zed Books.
Haltofova, B. (2018). Fostering community engagement through crowdsourcing: case study on participatory budgeting. Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, 13(1), 5â€"12.
Heilmann, S., and Melton, O. (2013). The reinvention of development planning in China, 1993â€"2012. Modern China, 39(6), 580â€"628. https://doi.org/10.1177/0097700413497551.
Howlett, M. (2014). From the “old†to the “new†policy design: design thinking beyond markets and collaborative governance. Policy Sciences, 47(3), 187â€"207. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-014-9199-0.
Howlett, M. and Ramesh, M. (1995). Studying public policy, policy cycles and policy subsystems (1st ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Ippolito, D. (2015). Why budget matter, budget policy and American politics; revised and updated edition. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press.
Juliani, M. (2016). The performance of members of the regional house of representatives in collecting the community aspirations: study of the third recess period of members of the DPRD of Malang Cit y year 2015. Undergraduate Thesis at Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Muhammadiyah Malang.
Kingdon, J. W. (1984). Agendas, alternatives and public policies. Michigan: University of Michigan Press
Kristiansen, S., Dwiyanto, A., Pramusinto, A., & Agus, E. (2009). Public sector reforms and financial transparency: experiences from Indonesian districts. Contemporary Southeast Asia, 31(1), 64â€"87. https://doi. org/10.1355/cs31-lc.
Luwihono, S. (2006). Participatory planning and budgeting for good governance. Bandung: Publisher of Community Participation Development Forum.
Manghayu, A. (2018). Participatory development planning in the implementation of e-musrenbang. Jurnal Manajemen Pembangunan, 5(2), 95â€"115.
Meloeng , L. (2007). Qualitative research method; revised edition. Bandung: Remaja Rosdakarya.
Nascimento, S., Iglesias, J. M. R., Owen, R., Schade, S., & Shanley, L. (2018). Citizen science for policy formulation and implementation. In S. Hecker, M. Haklay, A. Bowser, Z. Makuch, J. Vogel, & A. Bonn (Eds.), Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy. London: University College London Press.
Nasution, A. (2016). Government decentralization program in Indonesia. Asian Development Bank Working Institute
Neldysavrino, S., Komarudin, H., & Siagian, Y. (2007). Are community aspiration being accommodated in development plans? a lesson from collective action in Jambi. Center for International Forestry Research
Neshkova, M. I. & Guo, H. D. (2012). Public participation and organizational performance: evidence from state agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 22(2), 267â€"288. https://doi. org/10.1093/jopart/mur038.
Neuman, W. L. (2003). Social Research Methods. London: Pearsons.
Noveriyanto, B., Nisa, L. C., Bahtiar, A. S., Sahri, & Irwansyah. (2018). E-government as a government communicatin service in Surabaya City: study of e-government maturity as a communication service for government to government, government to citizen and government to business (trans.). Profetik Jurnal Komunikasi, 11(1), 37â€"53.
Parker, G. and Murray, C. (2012). Beyond tokenism? community-l ed pl anning and rational choices: findings from participants in local agenda-setting at the neighbourhood scale in England. The Town Planning Review, 83(1), 1â€"28. https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.2012.1.
Patton. (1990). Qualitative and research method. California: Sage Publication.
Perry, M. S. (2015). Four dimensions of democracy. Essays in Philosophy, 16(1), 3â€"25.
Pradana, A. W. (2018). Analysis of community participation in the development planning and APBD formulation of Malang City for fiscal year 2017. Post-Graduate Thesis at Faculty of Administrative Sciences, University of Indonesia.
Pradana, A. W. (2021). Decentralization practice in developing countries: lessons for Indonesia. Journal of Governance, 6(2), 319â€"339. https://doi.org/10.31506/jog.v6i2.12662.
Prasodjo, E. (2003). Problems and perspectives of political decentralization in Indonesia. In I. J. Pialang, D. Ramdani, A. Pribadi, & F. Basri (Eds.), Regional Autonomy: Evaluation and Projection. Jakarta: Yayasan Harkat Bangsa.
Rahayu, S. N. (2019). E-government innovation in regional development planning: effectiveness of e-musrenbang in Jakarta. Jurnal Administrasi Dan Kebijakan Publik, 9(1), 1â€"26.
Rubbin, A. and Babbie, E. (2008). Research methods for social works (6th ed.). California: Thomson Brooks-Cole Publishing.
Shah, A. (2007). Participatory budgeting: public sector governance and accountabilit y . Washington: The World Bank.
Sopanah, A. (2009). Community participation model in the preparation of regional budget. The 2nd Public Sector Finance Research Conference at Jakarta, Indonesia.
Sutrisna, H. M. (2012). Community participation in regional development planning: a case study on community involvement in the process of developing development programs in Malang City. Undergraduate Thesis at Faculty of Administrative Sciences, University of Brawijaya.
Wampler, B. (2007). Participatory budgeting in Brazil: contestation, cooperation and accountability. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Wampler, B. (2008). When does participatory democracy deepen the quality of democracy? lessons from Brazil. Comparative Politics, 41(1), 61â€"81.
Wasistiono, S. and P ol y ando, P. (2017). D ecentralization politics in Indonesia . Institut Pemerintahan Dalam Negeri Press.
Weale, A. (2004). Politics as collective choice. In A. Leftwich (Ed.), What Is Politics? The Activity and Its Study. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Yunas, N. S. (2017). The effectiveness of the e-musrenbang in the Surabaya City in the development planning system with a community paradigm. Jurnal Ilmu Pemerintahan, 7(1), 19â€"27. Retrieved from http://journal.unismuh.ac.id/index.php/ otoritas.
Yunas, N. S. (2020). Implementation of e-government in minimizing the practice of rent seeking behavior in the government bureaucracy of Surabaya Cit y. Matr a Pembaruan, 4 (1), 13â€"23. https://doi.org/10.21787/mp.4.1.2020.13-23.