Ecological Institutional Failure in Local Governments: Rethinking Environmental Governance in Decentralized Indonesia

IF 3.4 3区社会学 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Environmental Policy and Governance Pub Date : 2026-10-02 Epub Date: 2026-05-31 DOI:10.1002/eet.70106

Isnaini Muallidin

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Despite decentralization, Indonesian local governments persistently fail to deliver environmental outcomes. This article asks: why do institutional architectures systematically disable ecological responsiveness despite formal mandates? Introducing ecological institutional failure (EIF), the study develops a diagnostic framework moving beyond capacity-centric explanations. Based on document analysis of planning documents, budgets, and performance evaluations across five regencies, Sleman, Banjarmasin, Kutai Kartanegara, Sumbawa, and Wakatobi, the research identifies three mechanisms reproducing failure: symbolic compliance (performative commitment without substantive change), structural disjunction (fragmented mandates misaligned with ecological imperatives), and inertial governance (ritualized activity simulating motion without transformation). Rather than lacking resources, local governments exhibit overproduction of forms that obscure systemic inaction. Drawing on institutional theory and ecological governance literature, the article reframes governance failure as strategic maintenance of bureaucratic comfort zones, contributing to debates on environmental governance in the Global South.

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地方政府的生态制度失灵：对分权印尼环境治理的再思考

尽管权力下放，但印尼地方政府一直未能实现环保成果。本文提出的问题是：尽管有正式的授权，为什么制度架构会系统性地使生态响应能力失效？通过引入生态制度失灵（EIF），该研究开发了一个超越以能力为中心的解释的诊断框架。基于对五个县（Sleman、Banjarmasin、Kutai Kartanegara、Sumbawa和Wakatobi）的规划文件、预算和绩效评估的文件分析，该研究确定了三种再现失败的机制：象征性遵守（没有实质性改变的行为承诺）、结构性脱节（与生态要求不一致的碎片化任务）和惯性治理（没有转变的仪式化活动模拟运动）。地方政府不是缺乏资源，而是表现出过度的形式，掩盖了系统性的不作为。本文借鉴制度理论和生态治理文献，将治理失败重新定义为官僚舒适区的战略维护，为全球南方国家的环境治理辩论做出了贡献。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Environmental Policy and Governance ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES-

CiteScore

6.10

自引率

13.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： Environmental Policy and Governance is an international, inter-disciplinary journal affiliated with the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE). The journal seeks to advance interdisciplinary environmental research and its use to support novel solutions in environmental policy and governance. The journal publishes innovative, high quality articles which examine, or are relevant to, the environmental policies that are introduced by governments or the diverse forms of environmental governance that emerge in markets and civil society. The journal includes papers that examine how different forms of policy and governance emerge and exert influence at scales ranging from local to global and in diverse developmental and environmental contexts.