Policy Learning Across Governance and Development Trajectories: Evidence from Indonesia

INTRODUCTION Policy learning is commonly understood as the process through which governments acquire and apply lessons to public policy. Existing scholarship has largely examined how crises create opportunities for policy learning that may lead to policy change or institutional reform. However, less attention has been paid to how the nature of policy learning itself changes in response to political, economic, and institutional development. This paper argues that policy learning is not static. Instead, the way governments search for, translate, and apply policy lessons evolves alongside changes in political institutions, governance capacity, and national development. Indonesia provides a useful case to examine this question. Over the past 25 years, the country has experienced three major crises under very different political and developmental contexts: the 1997/1998 Asian Financial Crisis, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and the COVID-19 pandemic. These crises occurred during authoritarian rule, democratic transition, and a more mature democratic period, respectively. Examining these cases allows this study to explore how policy learning changed as Indonesia's governance evolved. The paper asks: How has policy learning evolved along Indonesia's trajectory of governance and development? METHODS This study adopts a qualitative, exploratory case study approach to the three crises. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with government officials, policy practitioners, academics, and non-government stakeholders involved in crisis response and institutional reform. These were complemented by documentary analysis of legislation, government reports, publications from international organisations, and relevant academic literature. The data were analysed content thematically to identify changes in learning processes, institutional arrangements, and reform patterns across different stages of Indonesia's political and economic development. FINDINGS The findings suggest that policy learning has evolved alongside Indonesia's governance and development trajectory rather than remaining constant across crises. During the Asian Financial Crisis, policy learning took place under conditions of limited policy autonomy and constrained state capacity. Respondents described learning as being heavily influenced by external actors, particularly the IMF, whose financial assistance was accompanied by extensive policy conditionalities. Following Reformasi, respondents observed a gradual shift towards more collaborative and domestically embedded learning. In disaster governance, for instance, Indonesia continued to draw lessons from international experience, particularly in disaster risk reduction. Despite the concept being adapted to Indonesia's institutional and political context, the country's political landscape seems fragmented in its implementation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, respondents described policy learning as relying more heavily on domestic expertise, scientific advice, intergovernmental coordination, and previous crisis experience. Although international evidence remained important, learning was no longer driven primarily by external pressure or conditionality. Instead, respondents suggested that Indonesia possessed greater institutional capacity to generate, coordinate, and adapt policy lessons from within its own governance system while selectively incorporating international experience. The paper contributes to policy learning scholarship by arguing that governance trajectory is an important factor shaping not only what governments learn, but also how they learn from crises. Keywords: Policy learning; crisis governance; governance development; Indonesia; Asian Financial Crisis; Covid-19