Indonesian Journal of Political and Civil Society Research

The Role of Civil Society in Controlling Digital Disinformation in East Lombok Regency

Muhammad Rizky HK — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 09:44:00 +0700

Digital disinformation has become one of the most disruptive conditions of contemporary democracy because it unsettles trust, distorts public judgment, and weakens the normative basis of participation. In local settings, the danger is not only the circulation of false information but also the gradual normalization of communicative disorder in everyday civic life. This article examines the role of civil society in controlling digital disinformation in East Lombok Regency. It asks how civil society can function as a mediating force between citizens, digital platforms, and democratic institutions, and what kinds of capacities are required for such a role to become effective. The study employs a qualitative design based on literature review and document analysis. The sources include civil society theory, democratic theory, public-sphere scholarship, research on disinformation, Indonesian policy documents on digital literacy, reports of election-monitoring institutions, and statistical publications relevant to East Lombok. The findings show that the role of civil society in controlling digital disinformation depends on at least four intertwined capacities: civic literacy, social mediation, participatory monitoring, and public advocacy. In East Lombok, these capacities are structurally relevant because the regency combines a large population, expanding digital connectivity, active associational life, and a political environment in which information moves quickly through social media, messaging applications, religious networks, youth communities, and neighborhood-level informal communication. The article argues that civil society is most effective when it does not merely react to isolated hoaxes but helps institutionalize habits of verification, ethical communication, and collaborative public responsibility. The contribution of the article lies in repositioning civil society as a democratic infrastructure of epistemic care at the local level.

Civil Society Advocacy and The Protection of Public Interest in West Nusa Tenggara

Very Wahyudi — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 09:43:43 +0700

This article examines how civil society advocacy contributes to the protection of public interest in West Nusa Tenggara. The central problem addressed here is that the public interest rarely protects itself through formal constitutional recognition alone. In decentralized democratic settings, public interest requires intermediaries able to interpret grievances, aggregate demands, monitor institutions, circulate public information, and transform dispersed social vulnerability into actionable claims. The article employs a qualitative design based on literature review and document analysis. The sources include civil society theory, advocacy scholarship, Indonesian decentralization studies, public-service accountability literature, official regional documents, reports on migrant-worker protection, disaster-governance materials, and publicly available data relevant to West Nusa Tenggara. The findings show that civil society advocacy in West Nusa Tenggara is most effective when it operates through five interconnected functions: issue translation, associational representation, institutional monitoring, cross-sector coalition building, and public-interest framing. These functions are particularly important in a provincial context marked by geographic dispersion, strong village and religious networks, labor migration, recurring disaster risk, service-access inequality, and the continuing need for transparent complaint handling. The article argues that the protection of public interest in West Nusa Tenggara depends less on episodic protest alone than on the sustained ability of civil society to build durable advocacy infrastructures linking citizens, media, local institutions, and policy arenas. The paper concludes that democratic deepening in the province requires stronger civic research capacity, wider complaint-based accountability, more inclusive representation of vulnerable groups, and institutional arrangements that treat civil society not as an external disturbance but as a constitutive force in public governance.

Civil Society and The Institutionalization of Citizen Participation in West Lombok Regency

Agus Dedi Putrawan — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 09:41:39 +0700

This article examines how civil society contributes to the institutionalization of citizen participation in West Lombok Regency. The analysis begins from a familiar democratic problem. Citizen participation often appears during elections, protests, or ad hoc consultations, yet it does not always become a durable part of ordinary governance. The democratic question therefore concerns not participation in the abstract but the extent to which participation acquires stable channels, procedural repetition, inclusive access, and public consequence. Using a qualitative, document-based design, the article draws on democratic theory, Indonesian local governance literature, official planning documents, public statistics, and local electoral oversight materials. The argument developed here is that citizen participation in West Lombok becomes institutionally meaningful when civil society is able to perform five interconnected functions: carrying associational life, mediating social concerns into public claims, securing repeated access to participatory forums, widening inclusion across social groups, and translating participation into policy or oversight consequence. West Lombok offers an instructive case because it combines rural and peri-urban social worlds, dense village life, local planning mechanisms, and electoral oversight initiatives that together reveal both the promise and fragility of democratic institutionalization. The article concludes that the future of participatory democracy in West Lombok depends less on the episodic mobilization of citizens than on the consolidation of civic routines that make participation regular, legible, and consequential.

Civil Society and The Public Sphere in Democratic Life in Central Lombok Regency

Muh. Alwi Parhanudin — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 09:40:49 +0700

This article examines the relation between civil society and the public sphere in democratic life in Central Lombok Regency. The analysis starts from the proposition that democracy requires institutional procedures, electoral competition, and an arena in which citizens can formulate concerns, test arguments, contest authorities, and transform private grievances into public claims. Civil society matters in this process because it creates the organizational carriers of communication, solidarity, advocacy, and social trust. The article uses a qualitative, document-based approach drawing on democratic theory, studies of civil society and the public sphere, Indonesian regulatory frameworks, and official regional materials relevant to Central Lombok. The findings show that the public sphere in Central Lombok is best understood as a hybrid field shaped by village institutions, religious and associational networks, local issue publics, electoral outreach mechanisms, digital communication, and development controversies linked to tourism, infrastructure, and public services. In this setting, civil society performs five interrelated democratic functions: translating lived concerns into public issues; expanding access to participation beyond formal elections; moderating social fragmentation through associational mediation; scrutinizing public authority; and sustaining a local communicative infrastructure that connects citizens, community leaders, and institutions. The article argues that democratic life in Central Lombok depends less on the mere availability of participation channels than on the capacity of civil society to keep the public sphere open, plural, and socially anchored.

Keywords: civil society, public sphere, democratic life, local democracy, Central Lombok, Indonesia

Civil Society Capacity in Safeguarding Democratic Quality in Mataram

Ihsan Hamid — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 09:43:06 +0700

This article examines the capacity of civil society to safeguard democratic quality in the city of Mataram. Rather than treating civil society as a moral abstraction, the article approaches it as a practical field of associations, advocacy networks, professional organizations, religious communities, youth groups, media actors, and issue-based coalitions that mediate between citizens and public authority. The main question is how far civil society in Mataram possesses the organizational, communicative, and collaborative capacity required to maintain democratic quality under conditions shaped by local electoral competition, digital information disorder, and institutional fragmentation. The study uses a qualitative document-based method and draws on democratic theory, civil society studies, official local statistics, electoral governance documents, and public reports related to information integrity and participation. The article argues that civil society capacity in Mataram is best understood through five linked dimensions: associative density, civic mediation, participatory institutionalization, information integrity, and advocacy effectiveness. Mataram presents a strategic local setting because it combines the characteristics of an urban administrative center, a relatively dense public sphere, and an increasingly digitalized communication environment. The analysis shows that civil society in Mataram retains meaningful democratic potential, especially in voter education, social oversight, policy communication, and public issue mobilization. At the same time, this capacity remains uneven because many organizations still depend on episodic mobilization, elite mediation, and weak long-term institutionalization. The article concludes that democratic quality in Mataram will depend less on the formal presence of elections alone and more on whether civil society can sustain informed participation, enlarge public accountability, and defend the integrity of local public communication.