Bottom-up Policy Advocacy: The Case of People’s Policy Proposals Advocating Four Laws for the Poor

Abstract

The study contained in this article sheds light on the campaign of Four Laws for the Poor, consisting of: 1) the Draft Law on Community Rights to Manage Land and Resources, also known as the Draft Law on Community Land Title; 2) the Draft Law on the Land Bank; 3) the Draft Law on Progressive Land Tax; and 4) the Draft Law on the Justice Fund. The campaign of Four Laws for the Poor is a bottom-up public policy advocacy . The substance of the public policy embodied by the Four Laws for the Poor was developed on the basis of problems experienced by people relating to land injustice. Land is an important basic factor for all human beings. The structure of concentrated land holdings as well as government policies on land and forest management are important reasons causing a large portion of the population to not have land for production or experience the problem of state land overlapping their own production land, giving rise to longstanding conflicts between the people and the state. The Four Draft Laws for the Poor therefore reflect public policy that stems from demands for land reform to achieve sustainable justice. These demands have arisen from advocacy conducted by five social networks, among which People’s Movement for a Just Society (P-Move) plays an important role.