KLOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF DEMOCRACY GOVERNANCE AND POLITICAL CULTURE AMONG CITIZENS IN OUTSTANDING DEMOCRATIC VILLAGES

Abstract

The Ministry of Interior has a plan for the fiscal year 2023 to promote governance in a democratic system, leading to activities for selecting outstanding democratic model villages at the provincial level. The studies on the southern region of Thailand. This area received the outstanding democratic model village award at the provincial level in 2023. The objectives are to 1) study the knowledge and understanding of democratic governance among the citizens in outstanding democratic villages and 2) study the political culture of the citizens in outstanding democratic villages. A qualitative method was used, including in-depth interviews with key informants from four groups: community leaders, the elderly, the working-age group, and teenagers, totaling 15 people, combined with recording unstructured observation, data triangulation of people and information sources, and content analysis.

          The analysis revealed that 1) each informant group has different knowledge and understanding of democratic governance: community leaders have a synthesis level of understanding, and the elderly and the working group have a comprehension level. In contrast, the teenage group has a memory level of understanding. This indicates that individuals' knowledge and understanding differ according to their level of applying knowledge, occupational activities, and participation in community activities. 2) The community leaders, the elderly, and the working-age group have a participatory political culture. In contrast, the teenage group has a subject political culture, indicating knowledge about democracy but lacking participation in democratic activities. This suggests that communities may have different political cultures, but since teenagers are the future of the community and country, activities related to democracy should be organized when teenagers can participate to shift towards a more participatory political culture as it promotes democratic governance.