The politics of policy formation
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Date
2009
Authors
Tauran
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Abstract
Policy formation is a complex process that a question of how policy arises
could turn to be interesting puzzles with no single definitive answer. In this context,
the objective of this study is to explain the process of policy formation of educational
budget during the constitutional amendment in Indonesia in 1999-2002. This
particular case was chosen because it marked a drastic change in the history of
educational budget in Indonesia which since 1969-1995 has been on the average
portion of 7.06 percent. However, the new policy has required the state to prioritize
the budget to be at least 20% of the total budget.
This study applies John Kingdon`s `stream policy theory` as a primary
analytical framework. According to Kingdon, a policy is formed through a complex
process which involves three streams namely problem stream, policy stream and
political stream. Using this framework, the study applies a case study approach for
the analysis. Data was gathered from the qualitative sources based on interviews,
transcript of minutes of meeting, and other secondary sources. The data was then
analyzed using the illustration method – filtering of data, classification and sorting
out process - and then discussed deliberatively based on the theory applied.
The main and fundamental observation from the study is – the formulation of
educational budget policy during the constitutional amendment in 1999-2002 was a
result of a momentum created by collective effect of three streams, i.e. (1) the
problem stream - an old problem of financing education in Indonesia which has been
present since the era of Independence. It was brought into the arena of constitutional
amendment using the platform of Reformation by policy actors; (2) the policy stream
- an idea to increase the budget for education which has been proposed since the
1960. This idea has entered into the debate on constitutional amendment due to the
effort of policy entrepreneurs rationalizing from other countries’ experience and their
success in managing the education; and (3) the political stream - a distinctive
political situation of the examined period. The distinctiveness emerges from the The
Majlis Permesyuwaratan Rakyat (MPR) at that particular period which consists of
mostly new members who have new perspectives on the issues and at the same time,
the euphoria of Reformation was at the peak. These two factors made it possible to
open a “policy window” which the allowed the problem stream and policy stream to
interact with each other. It was also observed that the policy entrepreneurs have
played important roles by taking advantage of the “policy window”. This policy
window allowed the three streams to converge and lead to political compromises
among actors to get their support for the proposal of 20 percent of national budget for
educational.
The result of the study have several conceptual implications; (1) affirming the
idea that the formation of a policy does not always have to go through sequential and
rational process, (2) for the success of any policy proposal, the existence of policy
entrepreneurs and their capabilities in selecting of proper arguments are very critical.
Description
Master
Keywords
Social science , Policy formation , Educational budget , Constitutional amendment