Jurnal Bina Praja 10 (2) (2018): 195-207 JURNAL BINA PRAJA E-ISSN: 2503-3360 | P-ISSN: 2085-4323
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Jurnal Bina Praja 10 (2) (2018): 195-207 JURNAL BINA PRAJA e-ISSN: 2503-3360 | p-ISSN: 2085-4323 Accreditation Number 21/E/KPT/2018 http://jurnal.kemendagri.go.id/index.php/jbp/index Political Participation of Youth in the West Java Regional Election (Pilkada) in 2018 Yusa Djuyandi*, Ari Ganjar Herdiansah Department of Political Science Universitas Padjadjaran Jl. Raya Bandung - Sumedang, Jatinangor, Sumedang, Indonesia Received: 26 August 2018; Accepted: 24 September 2018; Published online: 13 November 2018 DOI: 10.21787/jbp.10.2018.195-207 Abstract The implementation of the regional elections (Pilkada) in West Java is one of the means of democratic regional leadership succession. One indicator of the success of the elections is the political participation of the community, and one of the most important segments of society that is interesting to study is youth. Based on data from the West Java Election Commission, out of 31.7 million registered voters, there were 30% of young voters who could participate. But there are problems faced in efforts to increase youth political participation, namely the tendency of apathy towards identifying and analyzing youth political participation in West Java in the 2018 elections, this research takes and analyzes apolitics. number This of data study using aims qualitative to find out research how youth methods, political where participation the data were in the taken West consists Java Provincial of primary Election data derived in 2018. from In interviews, group discussions, and observations. Meanwhile, secondary data was obtained from various literature using data triangulation techniques to obtain accurate data. The results of this study indicate that in the implementation ofstudies, the 2018 media, West and Java official Pilkada, documents there is anof increasethe West in Java the Election political Commission. participation The of Youth data obtainedin voting towas elect then candidates validated forby governor and deputy governor. There are several factors that encourage an increase in youth political participation in negatethe West concerns Java Pilkada about in the 2018, low politicalnamely the participation figure and of track youth records in the ofPilkada the candidate event in pairs,West Javasocialization in 2018. Thisand campaigncondition canfactors, be a regional record, both factors, for ulamaelection influence organizers factors, or other and regionalcommunity head political candidates awareness and the factors. bearer The party, five for factors how to are suppress able to the potential Golput (White Party/Abstentions) numbers among beginner voters. Keywords: Political Participation, Youth, Democracy, Regional Election, West Java I. Introduction by the community, shows that there has also been The implementation of direct regional a political decentralization. The desire to hold elections by the people is one form of the realization elections in the region is the community wants of the democratic political system at the regional prospective leaders who are reliable, able to bring level, this political process is carried out in hopes change, progress, and development for the region of bringing the region towards a better political and the community itself. life due to the election of a regional head who is The implementation of regional head elections requires the participation and active role of the public expectations. The rolling of the reform era community in voting. Political participation in broughtmore responsible, a political changequalified, that and did able not toonly fulfill occur high at society is needed in the political life of a democratic the central level but also extended to the regional country. In general, political participation is the level. The birth of a law on regional government activity of a person or group of people to participate within the framework of regional autonomy, which actively in political life, among others by choosing is then regulated that the regional head is elected a leader of the State and directly or indirectly * Corresponding Author © 2018 Yusa Djuyandi, Ari Ganjar Herdiansah Phone : +62 817 9242 566 This work is licensed under the Creative Email : [email protected] Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- 195 ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 2014, p. 504; Sinen, Lamadirisi, & Gugule, 2013, p. activity includes actions such as voting in general 70). These three studies see that public political electionsinfluencing and government so on. policy (public policy). This participation, which tends to be low, threatens Since the enactment of the simultaneous democratic values, and this happens not only Regional Head Election, in 2018 there were 171 in countries whose democratic processes have regions holding simultaneous regional elections just developed but also in countries with liberal on 27 June 2018. One of the provinces that democratic systems. The fall in the level of political implemented it was West Java. Based on KPU participation can also be an indication of the failure data, West Java Province in the implementation of of political agents in implementing democracy in the 2018 Regional Election was recorded to have the real sense, in which the current implementation 31,974,728 Million registered voters (General of democracy is more likely to be procedural. Election Commission, n.d.). As a province with the The third is research related to the political largest population in Indonesia, West Java can be used as a parameter in measuring people’s political p. 106) (Rossi, 2009, p. 467). Both of these studies participation in Indonesia. discussparticipation the perspective of first-time of politicalvoters (Herlina, youth political 2017, Of the 31.7 million registered voters in participation. However, there are relatively different West Java, according to the West Java Election conditions between the two, Herlina (2017) Commission, there were 30% of young voters who discovers how youth leaders play an important role participated (KPU of West Java Province, 2018) . With as legislative candidates in the 2014 Election, while Rossi (2009) precisely sees the emergence of youth political participation in the 2018 West Java Pilkada political apathy that arises in several countries such becomesthis significant important amount, to be chosen.research On related the other to youthhand, as Argentina and Papua New Guinea. there are several problems faced in increasing youth The three previous research categories above political participation, such as apathy tendencies have differences with this study. First, there are towards politics, the small number of young people differences in the location of the study or the scope who identify with political parties, to the potential of the study, where researchers made the West Java of increased abstentions (Muhtadi, 2013, p. 5). region as the scope of this study. Second, the time of Before the West Java Pilkada in 2018 was held, the this research was different where researchers used Commissioner of the Socialization Division of the the West Java Regional Election, which was held in West Java Provincial KPU, Nina Yuningsih, once 2018 while the previous three studies were carried expressed her pessimism towards the participation out in the previous period so that this would show target of the new voters (Rihanto, 2018). On the the novelty of the existing political participation. basis of these issues, this study focuses on discussing Third, the subject of this research was the youth in the political participation of the West Java youth in West Java Province. the 2018 West Java Regional Election. Research related to political participation is not A. Political Participation a new thing. Therefore, this research is considered Political participation has a strategic position in necessary to show the state of the art which can then the context of democracy in society. This can be seen distinguish from previous studies. Based on studies from the activities and sustainability of a political activity. Community activities in this political activity existence of several studies that raise the theme of can be demonstrated through their participation in women’sof similar political studies, participation the first can in Generalbe mapped elections the various electoral activities (legislative, president, and Regional elections (Gama & Widarwati, 2008, regional heads, and village heads) in Indonesia. One p. 63; Syamsudin, 2017, p. 108; Warjiyati, 2016, of the activities carried out by youth to come to the p. 1) the three studies considered that women’s election location or polling station (TPS) to vote is political participation was important and therefore an act of political participation. Before analyzing the building political awareness from women’s groups phenomenon under study, in this section, various was deemed necessary. Encouragement of women’s concepts and theories about political participation political participation is not only limited to certain will be explained. sub-segments but also for the entire segmentation In the view of Almond & Powell, JR. (1978, p. 4) of women, such as housewives. political participation is not only limited to taking The second category of previous research is part or role in the context of political activities, but political participation is always preceded by the quality and quantity of the broad political an articulation of interests in which an individual participationthe research that of society looks at in the the difficulty democratic of improving process,