Democratic Model of Public Policy Accountability. Case Study on Implementation of Street Vendors Empowerment Policy in Makassar City

Abstract

Policy accountability is a form of manifestation of public officials responsible to the people. One form of policy accountability that is discussed here is street vendors policy accountability, because they are a group of citizens who have the economic activities in public spaces. The existence of this policy however, the number of street vendors from year to year increase in Makassar City. Therefore, this study seeks to uncover and explain the democratic policy accountability through the street vendors’ responses and expectations to the implementation of street vendors empowerment policy in Makassar City; and to uncover and explain the democratic policy accountability through the stakeholders’ responses and expectations to the implementation of street vendors empowerment policy in Makassar City. To achieve these objectives, the study uses democracy theory, in which this theory focuses on togetherness in discussing solutions to the various problems of street vendors and in the policy implementation as well. This study used a qualitative design and case studies strategy. Data collection techniques used was observation, interview, and documentation. Data were analyzed with case description its settings. The results of this study pointed out that the interests and needs of the street vendors are not met through the empowerment policies vendors. This is caused by the absence of accountability forum as a place of togetherness all of street vendors empowerment stakeholders’. Street vendors empowerment policy in Makassar City are designed base on a top-down approach, so they are considered as objects, which must accept all government programs aimed at them. Keywords: Democratic Policy Accountability, Implementation of Street Vendors Policy, and Empowerment Policy.