Relations among all levels of government of Thailand
Objective of this chapter
After this class, the students will be able to:
• describe relations among all levels of government of Thailand;
• understand main purposes of Relations among all levels of government of Thailand;
• know Relations among all levels of government of Thailand ;
• know and understand limitations and problems in Relations among all levels of government of Thailand.
Questions
• Why are relations among all levels of government of Thailand important?
• Why the central government always face difficulties in maintaining good relationship among levels of government?
Classification of Government in Thailand
• In Thailand, there are three levels of government in national administrative system:
• Central government
• Provincial government
• Local government
Central Government
• In this level, it is referred:
- as the mechanism through which ordered rule is maintained
• as the machinery for making and enforcing collective decisions in society and elsewhere
• As an institute that involves in governance
• As a policy-maker
Main Purpose of
Government at Central Level
• Maintaining order which means to establish the rule of law to preserve life and to protect property.
• Providing public goods which means the government’s action is to provide goods and services to the society and population.
Promoting equality that related to a state’s welfare;
to expand and provide individual wages;
to develop and maintain qualities of medical care and to promoting good education to public.
redistributing wealth and income so that populations who live in the state can live well.
Main Purpose of Government
at Provincial Level
• Provincial governments are responsible for several important government.
• This obligations are within a scope of working assigned by the central government.
• The provincial government’s working task can be in several area such as to maintain regulated activities, education and overseen the local government function .
Main Purpose of
Government at
Provincial Level
• Because the local government is an organisation at the lowest level in national administrative system, then it is established and expected to provide goods and services as well as to develop their local area.
Relations among central government , provincial government and local government of Thailand
• Thailand’s national administrative system is set hierarchically. From this, central government is the main actor to administrate the country.
• With Thailand’s political culture and historical background, a national administrative system has had a powerful influence on the bureaucracy and the behaviour and work of all government officials.
• Since the Thai government announced and promoted the decentralisation policy, Thailand’s national administration continues to be dominated by a ‘top-down’ approach
• This gives the local government level has less opportunity to participate in political system.
Thailand’s
National Administration
• While government at provincial level are assigned from central government to work, government staff at the local level even have limited opportunity to perform their responsibility as to exercise their own authority.
• Local government official are promoted while being transferred among several local authorities under control by the government at higher level.
• There are three main characteristics of the Local Administrative Organisation system promulgated in Thailand during 1990s:
• (1) There was a dual system of local administrative organization that that referred to the autonomy line and central government line which
at first, the local authorities were headed by the representatives who were elected by local residents (Kamnan)
• and later the system was changed and the local authorities were operated by the provincial governors and district officers (Central government’s control)
(2) The characteristic that the central government line controlled and supervised the autonomy line. (Full of hierarchy)
(3) The characteristic that adopted different principles of representation within a context of urban and rural areas. ( The local government is divided into urban and rural based)
Decentralization according to the laws for
local government
• In the 1997 Constitution and the Determining Plans and Process of Decentralisation to Local Government Organisation Act, B.E. 2542 (1999), the government set out a decentralisation plan for local government.
• The 1999 Act sets out how local government organisation should proceed:
• The transferred missions relating to the public services managed by the State on the date of enforcement of this Act to local government organisation with the period of time as follows:
(a) The overlap missions between the State and local government organization or the mission provided by the State in the area of local government organization, the proceeding shall be complete within four years.
(b) The missions provided by the State in the area of local government organization which impacted to other local government organizations, the proceeding shall be complete within four years.
(c) The missions proceeded under the government policy, the proceeding shall be complete within four years.
• The decentralisation plan was divided into three different periods.
• In the first period, 2001-2004, there were two steps to carry out
• a restructuring of internal administrative system at local government level, including central and provincial administrative systems, developing strategy for decentralisation.
• secondly, to have the staff, the revenue, and the relevant law ready before carrying out the transfer of responsibilities.
• In the second period, 2005 to 2010, the transfer of authority took place.
• While the administrative roles of each of the central, provincial and local government levels were transformed, the issues of the relationship between the three government levels
• This as well as the relevant law and procedures were reviewed to allow the local government organisation work more effectively.
• In the third period, after 2011, decentralisation is expected to happen across all localities.
• The government expects local people will have a better standard of living due to the public services being provided at the local level.
• It is also expected that they will participate and cooperate more in local government activities.
• Another expectation is that the local government organisation will have more capabilities in order to implement policy more effectively.
• After ten years of power transformation, the local government organisations will have more autonomy as well as more revenue to implement policies.
• In addition, with their experience gained from the second period, local government organisations must be able to work more effectively.
Activity
• While central government’s responsibilities are involved with the national overview, local government also has its authority to work on its own. From this, in what degree of autonomy the central government should consider?