Act of Local District administration Rattanakosin Era 116: The First step of Thai local government

Abstract

Even though “The Act of Local District administration Rattanakosin Era 116 (1897)” is not the law about local government in current definition, but this law represented the formation and founding of Thai local government in late 19^th Century. In that time, Thai society was transformed from traditional state to modern nation state which centralized power to the government in Bangkok. In the local district areas were administrated by the function of the government which gave the power to the sub-district head man and village headman. Sub-district head man and village head man were authorized by law and responsible to the government directly, differ from the traditional state. This Act gave the right to Thai people to elect the village headman which is the first time that the people participate in politic directly and represented the first step of Thai local government.