Developing an Old-Age Allowance Policies in Thailand: A Comparative Study of Public Policy Making

Abstract

         The objective of this dissertation is to (1) study developing an old-age allowance policies in Thailand, (2) study factors resulting in the similar or different allowance policies making process in each government time, and (3) study roles of the policy pushers or policy entrepreneurs .Qualitative research is adopted to analyze   information from documents and in depth semi- structured interviews with seven role players involving or pushing the policies. The researcher focuses on triangulation of data, data collection methodology, and theory. Reliability of data is checked frequently with reliable references and not too much adhered to a data source.

         Analysis of data from document and interview shows that: (1) Allowance Policy is resulted from the confluence of political stream, problem stream, and policy stream reflecting the prominent characteristic of the public policy making of three government times. In the time of Mr. Anand Panyarachun, new welfare approach providing allowance of Baht 200 per month only to the poor old-age persons had been approved by the cabinet resolution in March, B.E 2535 and the budget was subsequently allocated in the time of Mr. Chuan Leekpai in B.E 2536. Subsequently, several changes were made to the approach to suit with actual situation giving the most benefit to the old- age persons. The allowances was increased to Baht 300 per month and later to Baht 500 per month. Major change was made in B.E 2551 in the time of Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva. Allowances of Baht 500 per month was provided to every old-age person. In B.E 2554, during the time of Ms.Yingluck Shinawatra, allowances was provided to every old-age person with the incremental rate of Baht 600 to 1,000 per month. (2) Regarding the factors influencing different old–age allowance policies making and regarding the policy entrepreneur, it is found that in the time of Mr. Anand, the interest group was the important factor of policy agenda setting. The policy decision made by working group reflects the policy making which is focused   on technocratic analysis, where Mr. Anand is the policy advocate. This resulted in the poor old-age allowance policies of Baht 200 per month.  In the period of Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva, the past policy feedback showed that the selective allowance was not fair and change in policy was made to give every old-age person of Baht 500 per month. This reflects the managerial policy making to solve the problem where Mr. Abhisit is the administrative policy entrepreneur. In the time of Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra, the policy is continued to get popularity aiming to win the election. Feedback showed that old – age persons were still abandoned. This reflects the Populist policy making providing the incremental allowances, where Ms.Yingluck is the political policy entrepreneur. Political stream opens the policy window placing the old –age allowance issue as the government policy. This study recommends the government sector to expedite setting national pension fund to lower portion of the allowance expense in the future.