Reconception of Criminal Liability for Money Politics Crimes in General Elections Under Law No. 7 of 2017

Abstract

This research addresses the issue of money politics as a serious criminal offense that threatens the integrity of electoral democracy in Indonesia. Law Number 7 of 2017 on General Elections has indeed stipulated criminal sanctions for money politics practices; however, its regulation remains limited to formal actors such as campaign teams and election organizers. It creates a normative gap, as intellectual actors such as legislative candidates, funders, and other informal networks remain beyond the reach of the law. Based on this weakness, then the research aims to formulate a reconception of criminal liability that is more just, progressive, and responsive to the complexity of money politics crimes, which are collective and structural in nature. The method used in this study is a normative-empirical method supported by several approaches. The main approaches are the statute approach and then the conceptual approach, while the supporting approaches include the case approach, philosophical approach, sociological approach, and comparative approach to countries that have succeeded in holding structural actors in money politics accountable, such as South Korea, Brazil, and Italy. The theories used in this research are the rule of law theory (grand theory), progressive law theory (middle range theory), and criminal liability theory (applied theory). The results of this study are expected not only to enrich the discourse on electoral criminal law but also to provide a theoretical and normative foundation for regulatory reform. As a scholarly contribution (novelty), this research offers proposed reforms to the Election Law and the concept of collective-structural criminal liability, which can go beyond direct perpetrators to include functional roles within the criminal networks of money politics in elections. This research is relevant to promoting more substantive law enforcement in elections and ensuring democratic justice in line with the principles of the rule of law.