Neglecting the poor and marginalized: Participatory village governance in Indonesia's New Developmentalist state

Abstract Motivations Participatory governance is commonly implemented as an ad hoc programme to empower the citizen. In limited cases, such as Indonesia, it is institutionalized into the state bureaucracy and implemented nationwide. However, implemented by a New Developmentalist regime that is nationalistic and centralistic in its governance approach, the effectiveness of participatory institutions for overcoming issues of poverty and marginality is under question. Purposes Drawing from case studies on the implementation of the New Village Law in Indonesia, this article critically examines how the Participatory Village Governance policy has been designed and implemented by the New Developmentalist regime to address issues of poverty and marginality. Methods This article is based on a field monitoring study of the implementation of the Village Law at the village level, and supplemented by qualitative interviews at the village, district, and national levels with the implementing agencies of the participatory institutions and the broader community. Finding The research findings show that the new policy of Participatory Village Governance has a narrow focus on the village economy and infrastructure to serve the interests of the New Developmentalist regime of Joko Widodo rather than the interests of the people of the village. The centralistic approach in the implementation of the new policy has also overlooked the issues of poverty and marginality, dampening the true potentials of the participatory approach. Policy implication The participatory approach in development and governance has huge potential, including the addressing of poverty and marginality issues. However, a centralistic approach in design and implementation, removing the political dimension of participatory approach, can jeopardize the possible outcomes. It is advised that participatory governance must be equipped with its very fundamental components, namely, political empowerment.