SERVING THE POOR WHILE SECURING THE VOTE: Islamic Parties and Welfare Program in Decentralized Indonesia

Abstract

As a country with a majority Muslim population, Indonesian people expect Islamic parties to play an active role in addressing welfare problems, including the problem of inhospitable housing (RTLH). This article tries to explain how Islamic parties oversee the welfare policy agenda at the local level, especially through the Inhospitable Houses (RTLH) program. This article starts from the question of how Islamic parties (PKB and PKS) contribute to overseeing welfare programs in general and handling the issue of inhospitable house problem (RTLH) in local context. In contrast to most scholarly studies which frame contemporary Indonesian politics in the framework of patronage and clientelism, this article departs from the view that Islamic parties, like any other parties with different ideological preferences, also seek to respond and tackle the welfare policy agenda. By focusing on PKB and PKS in Banyumas and adopting process tracing analysis method as commonly used in political studies, this article shows that Islamic parties at the local level are more likely to support welfare policies when those policies offer attractive electoral incentives to party candidates for getting re-elected in the elections. However, every Islamic party takes different path in which one favor programmatic and strategic political linkages whereas another one maintains pragmatic and tactical political linkages to their constituent base.