The Politics of Educational Decentralisation in Indonesia: A Quest for Legitimacy

“This is a remarkable book which should appeal not only to Indonesian scholars, but also to educationists and political scientists, to name just a few. By tracing the path of decentralisation in the Indonesian educational reform in the early 2000s, Zamjani shows how the central and municipal governments struggled in different ways to retain control over education in their domains through various mechanisms largely related to claims of legitimacy. The study is grounded in new institutional theory, and the interview and case study data provide a richness and depth in showing the dynamics of reform attempts.” —Professor Lawrence J. Saha, Australian National University, Canberra 

This book discusses the dynamics of educational decentralisation in post-reform Indonesia. Taking sociology’s new institutionalism approach, and drawing upon data from documents and interviews with strategic informants, the book investigates how institutional legitimacy of educational decentralisation was garnered, manipulated, and then contested. Besides analysing global institutional pressures which influenced the national adoption of decentralisation reform, and the central government’s attempts to restore its legitimacy, the book also offers comparative case studies of education governance in two local districts to highlight how this reform is responded to at the local level.