BUDDHADHAMA INTEGRATION FOR PROMOTING POLITICAL ETHICS IN THE DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM OF LOCAL POLITICIANS IN CHUMPHON PROVINCE

Abstract

Objectives of this research were 1. To study political ethics in a democratic system. 2. To study the factors affecting political ethics in a democratic system, and 3. To propose Buddha-dhamma integration for promoting democratic political ethics among local politicians in Chumphon Province, conducted by mixed research methods. In qualitative research, data were collected by in-depth interviews with 18 key informants and participants in focus group discussions, and data was analyzed by descriptive interpretation. In the quantitative research, data were collected from 400 samples with questionnaires. Statistics used to analyze data were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and simple linear regression analysis.

The results showed that: 1. Local politicians in Chumphon Province listened to the people, respected the monks and community leaders, adhered to the majority resolution, and listened to the elders' opinions, a tradition of Thai society. 2. Basic ethical factors that affected the promotion of political ethics in the democratic system were with a statistically significant level of 0.01, indicating that 13 percent of variations could be explained, thus accepting the set research hypothesis and contributing to the promotion of democratic political ethics by local politicians. In Chumphon, at a statistically significant level of 0.01, indicating that a variation of 5.80 per person could be explained, thus accepting the set research hypothesis. 3. Integration of Buddhist principles to promote democratic political ethics of local politicians. In Chumphon Province was found that integrating Buddha-dhamma to promote democratic political ethics of local politicians to be rational leaders who know themselves, know the locality of the context, know about what they have and the strengths of the locality, know the passage of time, know the order of work before and after according to the needs of the people, see the community, know the local situation, the context of society and  pay attention to improving the quality of life of the people