Political participation of civil society affecting democratization

Abstract

Abstract

The objectives of this dissertation are as follows: (1) to study the level of civil society and participation in politics and democratization in Thailand (2) to analyze the relationship between the civil society, participation of political and democratization in Thailand; and (3) to analyze the development of civil society having political participation as base and the democratization vis a vis to offer some guidelines for
democratization in Thai context. The samples used in the research include members of community executive councils, experts, community councils and community leaders strategically selected totaling 392 and indepths interviews of 25 important informants. Statistics used in this research are basic ones and tested their consistency of their causal relationship using SPSS program. It was found from the study that both participation and democratization are at a “much” level. When considered individually in accordance with their mean (), they can be ranked from the higher to the lowest thusly: civil society ( = 4.19), followed by political participation ( = 4.10) and democratization ( = 3.30),  respectively. As to the relationships between and among variables, it was found that every variable is related in the same direction from the lowest to the higher levels whose r being between. 000 - 1.000 with of internal components are one directionally related at a “much” level , especially autonomy and self-governing variable and participation in public poll variable whose r equates 1.000 having their relation at the highest level with a statistical significance at .01 ; the non – allocation of interest their variable and legal legitimacy variable having relational a minimal level whose r = .007 ; while the non – allocation of interest variable and the legitimacy variable are minimally related whose r = .011 ; the participation public poll and the legal legitimacy are minimally related whose r = .011 ; while the non – allocation of interest variable are not
related whose r = .000 The recommendations which the author would offer are that promotion of the strength of the civil society comparable to that of the government agencies is a must . Reduce the state power and increase the citizen power by way of allowing the civil society participate in every level of public affairs, including political liberty, political rights, equality as well as legal legitimacy. Keyword: Political Participation, Civic Society, Democratization