Implementation of the Pilot Project Program at the Digital Public Service Mall of Bukittinggi City: An Analysis Using the Van Meter and Van Horn Model

Abstract

Digital Public Service Mall is a national bureaucratic reform policy that integrates health worker licensing services through a centralized digital platform, and the City of Bukittinggi was designated as one of ten national pilot project loci and the sole representative of West Sumatra Province. This research aims to analyze the implementation of the pilot project of MPP Digital in Bukittinggi City using the Van Meter and Van Horn (1975) model, which encompasses six indicators: policy standards and objectives, resources, characteristics of implementing agencies, inter-organizational communication and enforcement activities, the disposition of implementers, and economic, social, and political conditions. The research employs a qualitative approach with an intrinsic case study design; data were collected through in-depth interviews with nineteen informants as well as documentary study, and validated through source triangulation. The findings show that the policy's standards and objectives are layered and continuously negotiated; resources display an asymmetric profile, combining strength in technology and authority with weaknesses in financing and data; the characteristics of implementing agencies are marked by heterogeneity in inter-agency work norms; communication occurs across three networks of unequal effectiveness; implementer disposition ranges along a gradient from proactive to compliance-bounded; and economic, social, and political conditions reveal tension between strong political support and constraints of fiscal limitations and digital literacy gaps. The study concludes that the pilot project implementation has been procedurally successful but not yet substantively optimal, with the principal obstacles stemming from weak cross-ministerial institutional interoperability at the central government level rather than from local government capacity. These findings both reinforce and extend the propositions of Van Meter and Van Horn, while also revealing the model's limitations in explaining policies that remain in pilot status and are based on a centralized digital platform.