Managing Electoral and Wallet Content: Cash Social Assistance in Controlling Seasonal Inflation in Badung Regency

Abstract

Social assistance policies are often faced with the dilemma between fulfilling the constitutional rights of vulnerable communities and the managerial challenges of bureaucracy at the field level. This paper aims to evaluate the implementation of the Religious Holiday Cash Assistance Policy in Badung Regency in 2025 thru the lens of public administration management, focusing on the dimensions of effectiveness, bureaucratic structure, coordination mechanisms, and the resulting socio-economic impacts. Using a mixed-methods approach with a convergent parallel design, data were collected thru questionnaires from 204 beneficiary respondents and interviews with key informants from the Social Service, village/sub-district officials, and academics. The results of this study indicate that the existing policies are very effective in maintaining the purchasing power of the community (social safety net) and stimulating the circulation of micro-economy in traditional markets and local stalls amidst seasonal inflationary pressures. However, the analysis of public administration management identifies critical points in the bureaucratic chain, such as the vulnerability of validating non-civil servant income data, sudden regulatory changes, and technical issues with "collective accounts" that trigger cuts in minimum deposit balances and affect public satisfaction. Inferential findings prove that the disbursement time of funds is linearly correlated with the minimization of grassroots social conflicts. This paper concludes that the transformation from traditional public administration to New Public Service (NPS) based on governance digitalization (E-Governance) is absolutely necessary thru the integration of real-time data with DTKS and Dukcapil to strengthen the legitimacy and accountability of public policies in the future.