EXPLAINING ELECTORAL VICTORY THROUGH SOCIAL CAPITAL: A CASE STUDY OF A FORMER VILLAGE HEAD IN THE 2024 TEMANGGUNG LOCAL ELECTION, INDONESIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56015/gjikplp.v13i4.769Keywords:
: Head of Village, Local Election, Social CapitalAbstract
The 2024 Temanggung Regency Regional Head Election (Pilkada) presented a compelling political phenomenon, wherein a former village head successfully triumphed over two incumbent candidates. This study aims to analyze the role and mechanisms of utilizing social capital in Agus Setyawan’s victory in the 2024 Temanggung Election. This research employs a descriptive qualitative approach, utilizing a social capital analytical framework encompassing three primary dimensions: trust, social networks, and norms of reciprocity. Data collection is assumed through literature reviews, media analysis, and the candidate's track record.The findings indicate that the candidate's victory was deeply rooted in the social capital accumulated during his 16-year tenure as the Village Head of Campurejo. First, the trust dimension was established through an empirical track record in transforming human resources within his village, including reducing early marriage rates and advancing education. Second, the expansion of social networks was executed effectively by capitalizing on farmer groups, cultural arts associations (kuda lumping), inter-village head solidarity, and supported by structural political networks. Third, norms of reciprocity were fostered through a populist and grassroots approach that positioned the candidate as an equal to the common citizenry, thereby generating solid voter loyalty.In conclusion, the conversion of communal social capital and grassroots support proved capable of dismantling the political hegemony of incumbents. The phenomenon of the 2024 Temanggung Election reaffirms that a proven track record and social proximity at the village level can serve as a superior political modality compared to mere elite popularity.
References
Adams, J., Weschle, S., & Wlezien, C. (2021). Elite interactions and voters’ perceptions of parties’ policy positions. American Journal of Political Science, 65(1), 101–114.
Aspinall, E., & Berenschot, W. (2019). Democracy for sale: Elections, clientelism, and the state in Indonesia. Cornell University Press.
Avelino Filho, G., Biderman, C., & Desposato, S. (2021). Sources of the incumbency (dis) advantage. Brazilian Political Science Review, 16(1), e0004.
Bitzer, M., Dukes, T., & Cooper, C. A. (2023). Substitution effect, turnout effect, or both? Changes in distance to the early voting site and voter turnout. Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy, 22(3), 278–285.
Bland, B. (2020). Man of contradictions: Joko Widodo and the struggle to remake Indonesia. Contemporary Southeast Asia, 42(3), 437–439.
Brown, J. (2025). Oligarchy, populism, democracy: re-conceptualizing democratization and de-democratization in the neoliberal era. Socialism and Democracy, 39(1–2), 56–77.
Buehler, M., Nataatmadja, R., & Anugrah, I. (2021). Limitations to subnational authoritarianism: Indonesian local government head elections in comparative perspective. Regional & Federal Studies, 31(3), 381–404.
Christens, B. D., Gupta, J., & Speer, P. W. (2021). Community organizing: Studying the development and exercise of grassroots power. Journal of Community Psychology, 49(8), 3001–3016.
Fatima, S., Kakar, K. U., & Fatima, A. (2025). DEMOCRACY BY DESIGN OR DEFAULT? RETHINKING ELECTIONS IN PAKISTAN. Contemporary Journal of Social Science Review, 3(4), 590–604.
García-Montoya, L., Güiza-Gómez, I., & Saffon, M. P. (2025). Entering the Political Arena in Exclusionary Settings: A Grassroots-Led Turn to the Left in Colombia. Comparative Politics, 57(3), 391–416.
Hanani, R., Rahman, A. Z., & Kristanto, Y. (2021). Social capital and resource mobilization during pandemic: Insight from Jogo Tonggo program in Central Java. Jurnal Analisa Sosiologi, 10(3).
Hidayaturrahman, M., Ngarawula, B., & Sadhana, K. (2022). Political investors: Political elite oligarchy and mastery of regional resources in Indonesia. Asian Journal of Comparative Politics, 7(2), 269–281.
Husu, H.-M. (2022). Rethinking incumbency: Utilising Bourdieu’s field, capital, and habitus to explain energy transitions. Energy Research & Social Science, 93, 102825.
Kenny, M., & Luca, D. (2021). The urban-rural polarisation of political disenchantment: An investigation of social and political attitudes in 30 European countries. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 14(3), 565–582.
Le Galès, P. (2021). The rise of local politics: A global review. Annual Review of Political Science, 24(1), 345–363.
Locatelli, L. (2022). Building Parties’ Grassroots: Electoral Systems, Party Organizations, and Social Linkages from a Cross-National Perspective. Brazilian Political Science Review, 16(2), e0007.
Mauk, M. (2022). Electoral integrity matters: how electoral process conditions the relationship between political losing and political trust. Quality & Quantity, 56(3), 1709–1728.
Mietzner, M. (2020). Authoritarian innovations in Indonesia: electoral narrowing, identity politics and executive illiberalism. Democratization, 27(6), 1021–1036.
Miswoni, A., & Satyawan, I. A. (2022). Management of Social Media as Public Communication Media for General Election Commission Tuban Regency. 7th International Conference on Social and Political Sciences (ICoSaPS 2022), 347–356.
Nanammal, V., Jebastine, J., & Balajivasan, R. J. (2023). Voting Machine for Blind and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis People. 2023 Eighth International Conference on Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (ICONSTEM), 1–4.
Ng, B.-K., Wong, C.-Y., & Santos, M. G. P. (2022). Grassroots innovation: Scenario, policy and governance. Journal of Rural Studies, 90, 1–12.
Nofrima, S., Sudiar, S., & Purnomo, E. P. (2021). How Javanese culture shaping political ideology (Case study of the people in Yogyakarta). Jurnal Ilmiah Peuradeun, 9(2), 435–450.
Nugroho, K., & Windyastuti, D. (2021). Analysis of patron-client political communication in building a network of political power in the village community. Jurnal Studi Komunikasi, 5(1), 110–133.
Putnam, R. D. (2025). “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital”(1995). In The City Reader (pp. 148–157). Routledge.
Qadir, I., & Khan, M. J. (2026). Understanding voter resistance to political campaigns: Evidence from National Elections of Pakistan. Journal of Political Marketing, 25(1), 48–64.
Ravanilla, N., Haim, D., & Hicken, A. (2022). Brokers, social networks, reciprocity, and clientelism. American Journal of Political Science, 66(4), 795–812.
Schuster, C. (2020). Patrons against clients: Electoral uncertainty and bureaucratic tenure in politicized states. Regulation & Governance, 14(1), 26–43.
Setiawan, K. M. P., & Tomsa, D. (2022). Politics in contemporary Indonesia: Institutional change, policy challenges and democratic decline. Routledge.
Setiawan, T. (2024). The emerging of patron-client relationship in contemporary peasant social movement articulation. European Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, 1(4), 41–53.
Shepherd, M. E. (2024). Who Is The Rural Voter? A Review Article and Appraisal of the Field of Rural Politics. Political Science Quarterly, qqae084.
Suryanagara, M. I. S., Rahmatunnisa, M., Bainus, A., & Umam, A. K. (2025). Eclecticism of voter characteristics and electoral choices in Indonesia: Lessons from the 2024 Indonesian Presidential Election. Journal of Posthumanism, 5(2), 1417–1439.
Turnbull-Dugarte, S. J., & Devine, D. (2023). Support for digitising the ballot box: A systematic review of i-voting pilots and a conjoint experiment. Electoral Studies, 86, 102679.
Wang, H., Guo, K., & Zhang, H. (2025). How village heads become street-level policy entrepreneurs: the case of rural revitalization in China. Journal of Asian Public Policy, 1–16.
