The Political Economy of Decentralization in Thailand

Abstract

The 21 October 1994 marked the second anniversary of the coalition government of Mr Chuan Leekpai of the Democrat Party. Considering the confused political situation in Thailand when Chuan assumed his prime ministership in 1992, and the many crises that occurred during his premiership, for him and his government to have survived this far is a remarkable achievement. There were, of course, opportune circumstances that worked in the government's favour, such as the continuing boom in the economy and the weakening of the opposition parties, as well as policies instituted by Chuan that contributed to the durability of his government. One of the latter is his government's overall decentralization attempts. Any student of Thai politics will know that the decentralization issue is not new. In fact, every constitution since 1932 has contained some provisions for local self-government and the current 1991 Constitution has a separate section (Section 9) that deals specifically with local governance. Yet the decentralization movement in Thailand has never reached the stage where it has ceased to be a major political issue. In fact, it could be argued that it became more acute than ever following the failure of the military crackdown of pro-democracy demonstrators in May 1992. In the general election that came four months later, almost every major political party promised in its electoral platform to promote decentralization through local elections and local fiscal autonomy. Of the five original coalition parties that formed the first Chuan government, two (the Palang Dharma Party and the Solidarity Party) pledged unequivocally to push for the direct local election of provincial governors. Two others, the Democrat Party and the New Aspiration Party, also promised to promote decentralization, but more cautiously. At any rate, the general mood of the people was clear: political and economic decentralization must be seriously carried out sooner or later.