ABSTRACT
While previous chapters examined the operationalization and effects of decentralization at specific levels of the system, this chapter takes a more wide-angle look at why decentralization did not work in practice as expected. The chapter moves through eight sections that speak of cross-cutting issues. The first six sections discuss broadly the ways that the technical, institutional, and political dimensions have combined to affect the governance of various forms of decentralization in Indonesia. The penultimate section pivots to discuss at length an issue that has been present—but under-explored—in previous chapters, namely the culture of corruption and elite control. The eighth and final section brings together but also begins to problematize insights generated through the various dimensions of the conceptual framework presented in Chapter 2. While that framework is valuable when it comes to explaining the extent and experience of policy enactment in practice, it can only go so far in explaining what could be done, if anything, to ensure that policies are, in fact, put into practice as envisioned. There is good reason to believe that there are deeper—cultural and, it is argued, colonial—dynamics that are not easily controllable by actors at any level of the system. This perspective raises significant questions about what to do going forward, particularly in light of the collective ritualistic, performative, and self-interested behavior of actors throughout the system, including actors at the global level (i.e., international organizations).
