Year: 1999
Type: article
Abstract: To date the success of the New Order government in Indonesia since the 1960's has been founded in part upon the implementation of a universal sys tem of administration integrating a myriad of local-level social formations within formally structured tiers of national government. Although the pat terning of administrative arrangements is everywhere more or less the same, their expression at the local level is modified to varying degrees by the influ ence of indigenous social forms and practice: what might be broadly charac terized by the Indonesian term adat. This is perhaps no more clearly appar ent than at the village or desa level of administration. In eastern Indonesia, where the concept and institution of the desa represent a comparatively recent development that has taken place over the past thirty years1, the exist ence and continuing significance of parallel indigenous political formations and sensibilities is particularly evident. These formations might be described in terms of the politics of local domains which predate the creation of the vil lage organization and strongly influence the manner of its implementation. This interaction and the ways individuals and groups have come to terms with the dynamic and sometimes competing demands of desa and domain authority inform the following paper.
Author: Andrew R. McWilliam
Language: English
Topic: Asian Studies and History
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W1996519973