The Consequences of Institutional Interplay and Density on Local Governance in Northern Thailand

Abstract

"A large portion of this paper discuses interplay between the provincial government, their networks and the newly created local government agency, the Tambon Administrative Organization (TAO). This is a result of our observation that non-state actors and provincial government network are intertwined. Commonly, NGOs access a village through provincial government representatives, the headman or the puhyaiban and uses this network in participatory approaches or use the headman directly as the coordinating person. We recognize also that many NGOs and other institutions do create networks entirely separated from the headman's coordinated ones; and it will be address in subsequent papers. In addition, a headman or a TAO counselor is not a person's full time job. Often they are entrepreneurs whose daily routine is more engaged in business networks. That too deserves more attention. This paper deals with an important feature in the Thai decentralization process that, this time around, the headman, and the Kamnan, the representatives of provincial government, are no longer the ones calling all the shots at a village level.

"The main body of this paper is organized in four major sections. First, we describe how decentralization has actually unfolded. Second, we assess the impacts of institutional density and interplay on local governance. Third we explore the implications for democracy with an emphasis on representation, citizenship, and public domain. In the forth section, we concluded that density and interplay positively shapes local governance."