New Zealand Political Studies Association (NZPSA) – 2021 Conference

Explaining Indonesia’s Preference

for Food Self-sufficiency:
A Case Study of the Food Law and
the Farmers Law
Hizkia Respatiadi
Politics Programme
9 February 2022
Outline
What will I share with you today?
• Study background
• The main research question
• Why does it matter?
• Exp. Framework: Mediating and Causing Factors
• Methodology
• Findings & discussion
• Conclusion

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Study Background
What is going on?
• IDN govt’s persistent pursuant of food self-sufficiency
• Food imports treated as ‘crisis/danger’ to food self-sufficiency ambition
• Keywords: domestic food production, local wisdom/values, import
restrictions
• Criticized by economic scholars:
➢ Market failures (Nuryanti, 2018)
➢ Contribute to rising rice prices (Erwidodo, 2015)
➢ Cost the taxpayers (Heufers & Patunru, 2018)
➢ Harms the poor (McCulloch & Timmer, 2008; Makbul et. al, 2015)

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Main Research Question
What do I want to find out?

Why has the Indonesian government preferred pursuing

a food self-sufficiency agenda?

• The Yudhoyono administration (2004 – 2014)

• The Food Law 18/2012 and the Farmers Law 19/2013

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Why Does it Matter?
This study is important (at least to me) because…

• Current IDN literature are limited to either:

➢ Bias on free trade
➢ Rent-seeking practices

• Topic of preference formation in public policy → Relatively unexplored in IDN

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 Explanatory Framework
Mediating Factor
• Domestic political institutions & processes
(ex: Aspinall, 2016; Warburton, 2018)
➢ Electoral system, chief executive, party system

Potential Causing Factor - Two approaches

• Material gains
(ex: Snidal, 2013; Hamilton-Hart, 2019)
➢ Monetary/financial benefits, political power

• Ideational features
(ex: Herrera, 2010; Neilson & Wright, 2017)
Source: Star Wars – Episode VI: Return of the Jedi ➢ Ideas/beliefs
© Lucasfilm & 20th Century Fox 6
Research Methodology
What did I do to find possible explanations?
• Qualitative method
➢ Interviews with 25 domestic actors (three groups)
➢ Semi-structured, one-on-one

• Case-study
➢ To contextualize findings

• Process tracing
➢ Exploring the deliberation process
➢ To develop a narrative

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 Findings & Discussion (1)
What I have found so far
• Domestic political institutions & processes
➢ Increasing influence of DPR in policymaking

➢ Democrat Party and its close ally, PKS Party

o Control executive seats (President & Min. of Agri)
o Control DPR (Chairperson & Leader of Bill
Committee)

➢ Minimal potential oppositions

o Sharing ministerial seats with rival parties

Image by Gunkarta Gunawan Kartapranata - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, 8

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10628011
 Findings & Discussion (2)
What I have found so far
• Material gains
➢ The MPs preferred laws that they believed resonate
with their constituents from agricultural regions
➢ Rent-seeking practices existed, but not significant
→ Minor involvement of business interests and
farmers organizations
➢ Executives play a much more significant role in
policymaking process
o Support from career bureaucrats
o Despite seemingly minimal material gains

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Source: Microsoft Stock Images
 Findings & Discussion (3)
What I have found so far
• Ideas/beliefs
➢ Not a representative sample, yet the sources are
influential
➢ Belief → Not always factually correct
➢ World views/symbolic belief → ‘FSS signifies freedom
and independence’
➢ Principled/normative belief → ‘State obligation →
protecting farmers’ well-being → Restricting import ‘
➢ Causal belief → ‘Indonesia is rich, so no need to
import food’
➢ Consistently appear during deliberation process, even
when there were no public to sway or imminent
elections to win
Image by Alexa_Fotos (https://pixabay.com/photos/idea-lightbulb-
10
enlightenment-1289871/)
Conclusions
What have I learned from the current findings?
• None of the three factors is sufficient on its own
• Interplay and complementary between them
➢ Ideas/beliefs as ‘motivations’
➢ Institutions as ‘enabler/mediator’
➢ Material gains as ‘incentives’
• One approach might be more dominant during certain stages than the others

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Thank You / Terima Kasih
hizkia.respatiadi@postgrad.otago.ac.nz