Democratization and the State
Competence, Control, and Performance in Indonesia's Civil Service

This Element shows that democratization leads to a more competent civil service, but does not automatically increase state performance.

Jan Henryk Pierskalla (Author)

9781009264815, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 December 2022

75 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 0.7 cm, 0.19 kg

Does democratization lead to more meritocracy in the civil service? The Element argues that electoral accountability increases the value of competence over personal loyalty in the civil service. While this resembles an application of merit principles, it does not automatically reduce patronage politics or improve public goods provision. Competent civil servants are often used to facilitate the distribution of clientelistic goods at mass scale to win competitive elections. The selection of competent but less loyal civil servants requires the increased use of control mechanisms, like the timing of promotions, to ensure their compliance. The Element tests these claims using novel micro-level data on promotions in Indonesia's civil service before and after democratization in 1999. The Element shows that national- and local-level elections led to increased promotion premiums for educated civil servants, and simultaneously generated electoral cycles in the timing of promotions, but did little to improve public goods provision.

1. Introduction
2. Democratization and the management of the civil service
3. Indonesia's civil service and the transition to democracy
4. Democratization, competence, and control
5. Democratization and performance
6. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Civil service & public sector [KNV], Public administration [JPP], Political science & theory [JPA]