Dr. Djuwari
Nation building can face a serious dilemma when three problems reinforce one another: money politics, the erosion of institutional authority, and declining public trust. These are not three completely separate problems. They can form a chain. When political competition increasingly depends on financial resources and transactional exchanges, public institutions may gradually lose their capacity to act according to rules and public interests. As institutional authority weakens, citizens become increasingly sceptical about whether institutions can deliver fairness, accountability, and effective governance. The eventual consequence is declining public trust.
Money politics is therefore more than an electoral problem. When political support is exchanged for material benefits, political relationships can become transactional rather than programmatic. Citizens may begin to perceive political participation not primarily as a mechanism for choosing policies and accountable leaders. but rather as an opportunity to obtain immediate private benefits. Research on Indonesia has documented how patronage and clientelism can shape electoral competition and constrain effective public scrutiny (Aspinall & Sukmajati, 2015; Winters, 2017). Comparative research likewise finds that electoral clientelism can undermine trust in the integrity of elections (Cohen et al., 2025).
The second consequence is the erosion of institutional authority. Authority does not simply mean the power to issue orders. Legitimate authority depends on institutions being perceived as impartial, predictable, accountable, and capable of enforcing rules. When political resources and access to government become excessively dependent on personal networks, patronage, or financial exchanges, formal institutions may lose some of their practical authority. Political actors and citizens may increasingly rely on informal relationships rather than institutional procedures. In this situation, the state can remain formally powerful while becoming weaker in institutional legitimacy.
The third consequence is declining public trust. Trust is not created by political slogans; it is accumulated through repeated institutional performance. The OECD identifies reliability, responsiveness, integrity, fairness, and openness as important drivers of public trust (OECD, 2024). Its 2024 survey found that, across 30 OECD countries, 44% of respondents reported low or no trust in their national government, compared with 39% reporting high or moderately high trust. The figures do not describe every country, but they demonstrate the broader governance challenge.
The solution, therefore, should not simply be to demand that citizens “trust the government.” Trust must be rebuilt institutionally. First, political financing and electoral transactions require stronger transparency, monitoring, and enforcement. Second, checks and balances must function independently enough to constrain abuses of authority. Third, public institutions need transparent decision-making, measurable performance, and meaningful channels for citizen participation. Fourth, public services must become more reliable and responsive because citizens often experience government through everyday administrative interactions (OECD, 2024).
Finally, nation building requires a change from transactional politics to institutional politics. Political competition should be increasingly centred on programmes, competence, evidence, and public accountability rather than personal exchanges. The objective is not to create blind public trust. Healthy democracy requires critical trust: citizens should trust institutions when they perform well, question them when they fail, and have effective mechanisms to demand correction.
Nation building becomes sustainable when money is no longer the principal currency of political relationships, institutional authority is protected by accountable rules, and public trust is earned through consistent performance. The three problems are interconnected; consequently, their solutions must be interconnected as well.
Dr. Djuwari is a scholar who received an Award of Peace and Humanity from the World United Humanitarian Organization (UHO), based in the UK, in 2026. The President of the International Association of Scholarly Publishers, Editors, and Reviewers (IASPER) lives in Surabaya, Indonesia
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