bloodless transition in which the system of government was changed from an absolute
monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. The revolution resulted in the people of Siam
being granted their first Constitution, which began by announcing that “the highest
power in the land belongs to all people”. The Constitution basically stripped the King
of all of his ancient powers for ruling the country. The Thai political system exists
within a framework of a parliamentary representative democracy and constitutional
monarchy, whereby the King is the Head of State, the Prime Minister is the head of
government, and there is a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the
government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two
chambers of parliament—The House of Representatives and The Senate. The
Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. However, although this
transition was vital, the government administrative structure and public administration
paradigm of the government designed by King Chulalongkorn was not much revised.
The revisions of administrative structure of the government were merely the substructure
of the systems.
A significant change in paradigm, form, and publicmanagement procedures of
the traditional bureaucratic model began again in 1980s, associated with the
phenomenon of globalization, international emulation, economic crisis, growth and
strength of private and civil society, corruption, and inefficiency of government and
bureaucracy. The beginning of public sector reform was in B.E. 2532 (1989) when the
term “Good Governance” was introduced by the World Bank and has been used to
refer to good management of government mechanisms in administering social and
economic resources for a country’s development. The term “good governance” has
been accepted as meaning that public participation, honesty, transparency,
accountability, political legitimacy, fair legal framework, predictability, efficiency,
and effectiveness are assured. The movement of Good Governance has pushed for the
reform of development mechanisms in countries which ask for assistance from the
Bank. Thus, in order to fulfill the World Bank’s conditions, there was also a need for
the Royal Thai Government to reform its administration (Pasuk Phongpaichit, 2001).
Three years later, while “good governance” was widely accepted in the Thai
public sector, “Black May” (Phruetsapha Thamin) – a common name for the 17-20
May B.E. 2535 (1992) popular protest in Bangkok against the government of General