Legal, managerial, and political drivers of governance performance: An accounting-based analysis of decentralized fiscal autonomy

Abstract

This research focuses on the influence of legal, managerial, political, and social variables (in this case, legal clarity, management accounting practices, elite capture, and community involvement) on governance performance in the context of special fiscal autonomy in Papua. We also investigate how Digital Fiscal Monitoring Systems (DFMS) attenuate these relationships. Quantitative survey; SPSS for regression and moderation analysis. Legal clarity and accounting transparency, and popular planning, positively affect governance, whereas elite capture has a negative influence on them. DFMS strengthens the positive impact of good governance and reduces the adverse effects of elite control. The interaction model of both shows that governance performance maximally increases if all institutional elements are synergized under digital monitoring. This paper offers an integrated governance framework of asymmetrical decentralization and positions DFMS as a moderator and an underdeveloped point of view in Indonesia’s subnational governance context. For Papua, the lessons are that the political process of passing laws must be accompanied by participatory planning and digital monitoring to ensure that autonomy meets its promise. This study has global implications for other poor or post-conflict areas that are contemplating such differentiated patterns of decentralization supported by digital public finance instruments.