Decentralization Discourse in Public Policy of Thailand

Abstract

The purpose of this research was three-fold. Firstly, it aimed to examine and critically analyzed the text of the decentralization discourse in the Thai public policy. Secondly, it studied and critically analyzed the practice of such discourse through the implementation of the policy in terms of local administrative regulations. And thirdly, it critically analyzed the result of such discourse that affects local administration and also recommends the approach to resolve the problems stemming from decentralization in local administration. The data were gathered from relevant documents, policies, laws, regulations, and from the interview of experts in local administration and government. Critical discourse analysis was chiefly employed for data analysis. Research results were as follows. First, the text of the decentralization policy in the Constitution, the state administrative policy, and the decentralization law covered the promotion of decentralization that complied with the principle of decentralization and the principle of local administration and government. The text’s implication on decentralization comprised of local autonomy, self-government, self-reliance, the will of the people, and mission transfer. Second, the practice of the decentralization discourse in terms of policy implementation in various laws and regulations for local administration according to local administration process was stipulated by the central authority Third, the resultant local administration had to say that the more such approaches or regulations were adopted for local administration, the less the local autonomy will it become. The acceptance and practice’s impact on the erosion of local administrative autonomy took place as a patronage power relation between the central authority and the locality.