Participation without accountability deliberative democracy in village Indonesia

This article explores the character of public deliberation in Indonesia by studying village meetings. In policies such as the 2014 Village Law, these village consultative meetings are envisioned as an important avenue for fostering citizen participation and accountability. In this article, we evaluate to what extent village meetings indeed strengthen village-level democratization in Indonesia. Using both ethnographic field research in eighteen villages as well as recordings of village meetings, we analyse the character of village meetings, the topics they address, and the discursive styles that villagers and officials employ in them. In many of these villages, such meetings take place only irregularly and remain an elite-dominated affair. Yet, where villages are relatively egalitarian and village government responsive, we encountered examples of relatively active and constructive participation by ordinary villagers. Analysing the discourse employed in such meetings, we find that even in such relatively open settings, villagers express their claims in a remarkably polite and modest fashion, avoiding open and direct criticism of village officials. We conclude that village meetings promote a form of participation without accountability: they provide a venue through which villagers can express their views and preferences, but they do not serve to impose accountability on their officials.