Political Education: The Role of Political Parties in Educating Civil Society on Politics

Abstract

This study uses extensive field research to compare and contrast the political education that political parties provide for their members and people. The researcher focuses on two political parties: the Democrat Party and the Puea Fah Din Party based on four important reasons: 1) both parties have constantly played significant roles in Thai politics for a long period of time; 2) both parties have apparent organization and internal structure; 3) both parties have the accurate number of party members as well as party branches in the past years; and 4) both parties have organized more or less political education for their party members and the public. The research result reveals that due to the differences in the objectives of party formation, political ideology, political participation and the strategy to recruit members, the two parties experience distinctive procedures to conduct political education for their members and public in general. While the Puea Fah Din Party was founded and has been working with the Asoke Community as a means to represent Asoke in politics rather than winning the elections, the Democrat Party was founded by political elites and aims to win the elections. As a result, the Puea Fah Din Party conduct activities on political education in order to strengthen party’s ideology among members. The Democrat Party, on the other hand, organize political activities to education people in general about party’s policy with a hope to win the elections.