Author(s): Ulya Kencana, Hasse Jubba, Harnoe Roesprijadji
The practice of money politics that occurred in the Pilkada shows the waning of public compliance with the law in Indonesia. This practice, in the Pilkada Law, is categorized as a prohibited practice and has legal implications in the form of sanctions for the perpetrators. Existing studies still focus on the perspective that places money politics as a legal issue. This study takes another side that has not been widely studied where the practice of money politics is seen from the perspective of legal culture which emphasizes that this practice continues also driven by community traditions and perceptions of a gift. Through observations, interviews, document studies and surveys, it is used to build an analysis as shown in this paper. The data is categorized and then analyzed to provide an explanation of the whole of the political practices of money on elections. This study clearly shows that there is a non-linear condition between the wishes of the law and the practice of the people in the elections. Even though the practice of money politics is prohibited, people still accept it as something legal. In other words, the cultural justification of society has protected this deviant practice . In the future, political literacy to the general public needs to be done to emphasize the awareness-awareness on the importance of abiding to the law and leave various deviant practices though has a legal basis from the aspect of culture.