Abstract
Environmental Policy is a major mechanism for the government to drive the public administration on environmental management. In Thailand, some citizens were significantly affected from the inadequacy of Public Participation in Environmental Policy and leaded to widespread conflicts about their interests in society. Although the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B. E. 2550 (2007) attempted to broadly open the opportunities on Public Participation in the environmental management but the interest conflicts were still existed. This article studied on Thailand Environmental Policy, especially examined the Citizen Participation Practice in the Environmental Policy Formulation which would contributed the further development in public administration aspect. The current national environmental policy, the Environmental Quality Management Plan B. E. 2555-2559 (2012-2016), was selected as the case study and analyzed to examine Citizen Participation Practice under the policymaking context by the principle of citizen participation “Perceptions of Stakeholders and Planners: the ladder of citizen participation” and the concept of environmental policymaking in government. Related documents and researches, environmental laws and regulations, and policies were reviewed, analyzed and synthesized for appropriately conducting in the study. The results were found that Thailand had an appropriate framework on citizen participation in the Environmental Policymaking Process regarding the provisions of constitution but it was limited by the provisions of older laws and policies which were enacted before the 2007 Constitution was promulgated. All of Citizen Participation Practices were located in the category of Tokenism, where the citizens became involved but only to certain extent. This is not meaningful in term of citizen control which should be appropriately conducted in the democracy society. Thailand did not have Citizen Participation Practices in the category of Nonparticipation and the current national environmental policy open an opportunity for amendment on Environmental Legislation. These findings were benefit to the better development of Citizen Participation Practice in Thailand Environmental Policy, which would be opened the participatory opportunity on the interest conflict resolution in the future.
Highlights
Since 1932, Thailand has changed the country regime from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy by adopting a democratic regime of government with the King as Head of the State and the sovereign power belongs to the Thai Citizen [1]
For the basic proposition of the case study was the application of Citizen Participation Practice under the provisions of 2007 Constitution to contribute the further development in the public administration on environmental management
The analytic strategy for analyzing case study evidence was the relying on theoretical proposition, which the theoretical orientation in this study examined Citizen Participation Practice in Thailand’s Environmental Policymaking Process and described that how the formation and modification in the policy formulation process occurred, and how the relevant actors acted to contribute the provisions of 2007 Constitution
Summary
Since 1932, Thailand has changed the country regime from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy by adopting a democratic regime of government with the King as Head of the State and the sovereign power belongs to the Thai Citizen [1]. The 1997 Constitution is considered as the fundamental to Thai modern political reform and recognized a wide range of basic rights, in the voicing of public opinion on issues of national importance and safeguarding people’s dignity [4] This Constitution was promulgated and mandated important provisions in political reform, establishment of independent organizations, administrative decentralization, public participation in natural resources and environmental management as well as the guarantee of the community rights for the first time [5]. The 2007 Constitution, Environmental Laws and Regulations related to Citizen Participation Practice in Thailand, including with Citizen Participation Principle and Environmental Policy Theory were reviewed, analyzed and applied for conducting in the study
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