Violations of Community Participatory Rights: Testing the Ladder of Public Participation Model on the Road Development Program in Indonesia

This study aims to investigate community participation in the process of road construction in Indonesia. Using the qualitative research method, this study specifically examines the roles and responsibilities involved in increasing community participation in the process of monitoring road construction. Primary data, which are obtained through a questionnaire method from 100 participants in 5 big cities in Indonesia, namely, Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, Semarang, and Makassar, between June 10 and August 25, 2022, are used. To measure the level of community participation, the authors use Arnstein’s ladder of public participation model and the International Social Capital Association’s model of public participation. Based on the study’s findings, community involvement in road construction is still low. The low level of community involvement has resulted in uncontrolled corruption that is detrimental to the rights of the community. This of course needs to be considered by the government, especially the Public Works and Spatial Planning Office, to increase community involvement even further. The position of feedback from the community is an important indicator vis-à-vis the progress of road construction in the future.