There has been a general assumption that the adoption of decentralization would facilate the improvement of governance quality. Based on an empirical study of Indonesia case, however, it is argued that such a kind of assumption is not always the case. Any good governance is hard to achieve because the complexity of its surrounding context, particularly the political ones. Given this, it can thus be suggested that in analysing any administrative phenomenon it is not neceessary to be exclusively reliant on the Wilsonian approach which separates public administration from politics. In order to have a functional analyses, particularly dealing with phenomenon in developing countries, it might be better to employ a wider perspective involving the usage of other discipline's approach, including politics.