INFORMAL FINANCING OF CANDIDATES: IMPACT OF INFORMAL SOCIAL NETWORK ON CAMPAIGN COST
Published:
2026-03-16Downloads
Abstract
This article discusses the impact of cultural context and informal social networks on candidate campaign financing in the Malaka Regency regional elections, East Nusa Tenggara Province. This study employs a qualitative approach, incorporating clientelism and candidate financing theories, to examine candidate financing practices in the Malaka Regency elections. The study's main finding is that all candidate pairs in the elections utilized informal networks based on kinship, ethnicity, and organizations as political vehicles. However, these informal networks did not significantly influence campaign funding. The study concludes that the primary component of candidate financing remains dominated by political party machinery, while informal networks do not receive sufficient financing as political machines.
Keywords:
Informal networks cultural context campaign costsReferences
Alexander, H. E., & Federman, J. (1989). Comparative political finance in the 1980s. Cambridge UniversityPress.
Aligica, P. D., & Tarko, V. (2014). Crony capitalism: Rent seeking, institutions and ideology. Kyklos, 67(2), 156– 176.
Alt, J. E., & Lassen, D. D. (2003). The political economy of institutions and corruption in American states.Journal of Theoretical Politics, 15(3), 341–365.
Aspinall, E., & Berenschot, W. (2019). Democracy for Sale: Elections, Clientelism and the State in Indonesia.
Austin, R., & Tjernstrom, M. (2014). Funding of political parties and election campaigns. International IDEA.
Berenschot, W. (2011). Riot Politics: India’s Hindu-Muslim Violence and the Indian State. Hurst/Colombia University Press.
Berenschot, W. (2018). The Political Economy of Clientelism: A Comparative Study of Indonesia’s Patronage Democracy. Comparative Political Studies, 51(12), 1563–1593.
Berenschot, W. (2019). Informal democratization: Brokers, access to public services and democratic accountability in Indonesia and India. Democratization, 26(2), 208–224.
Berenschot, W. (2020). Patterned pogroms: Patronage networks as infrastructure for electoral violence in India and Indonesia. Journal of Peace Research, 57(1).
Berenschot, W., & Mulder, P. (2019). Explaining regional variation in local governance: Clientelism and statedependency in Indonesia. World Development, 122, 233–244.
Boas, T. C., Hidalgo, F. D., & Richardson, N. P. (2014). The spoils of victory: Campaign donations and government contracts in Brazil. The Journal of Politics, 76(2), 415–429.
Bowler, S., & Donovan, T. (2013). The limits of electoral reform. Oxford University Press.
Bryan, S., & Baer, D. (2005). Money in politics: A study of party financing practices in 22 countries. National Democratic Institute.
Bussell, J. (2018). Whose Money, Whose Influence? Multi-level politics and campaign finance in India. In D.Kapur & M. Vaishnav (Eds.), Costs of Democracy: Political Finance in India (pp. 232–273).
Bussell, J. (2020). Shadowing as a Tool for Studying Political Elites. Political Analysis, 28(4), 469–486. Cagé, J. (2020). The Price of Democracy: How Money Shapes Politics and what to Do about it. Harvard University Press.
Casas-Zamora, K. (2005). Paying for democracy: Political finance and state funding for parties. ECPR Press.
Casas-Zamora, K. (2013). Dangerous liaisons: Organized crime and political finance in Latin America and beyond. Brookings Institution Press.
Casas-Zamora, K., & Zovatto, D. (2016). The cost of democracy: Essays on political finance in Latin Amer
Tarrow, Sidney. 1995. “The Europeanisation of Conflict: Reflections from a Social Movement Perspective.” West European Politics 18(2):223–51.
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Syahrin Badrin Kamahi, Yonathan H.L Lopo, Frans B.R Humau, Esrah D.N.A Benu
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
