InstitutionClaim Cited
Bali's Subak Irrigation Governance
Subak organizes irrigation, cultivation, canal maintenance, assemblies, customary rules, and ritual among Balinese rice farmers whose fields share water. Neither a timeless village democracy nor only a heritage landscape, it has been shaped by temples and dynasties, colonial administration, agricultural policy, provincial law, tourism, and land markets. Its practical authority persists where farmers can still coordinate water and planting across boundaries, but that authority does not by itself secure equal voice, viable farm incomes, or control over development outside the subak.
How can farming communities coordinate water, cultivation, ecology, and sacred obligation across a watershed without separating any one from the others?