Paths to Create the Democratic Way of Life on the Native Cultural Background in Thailand’s North Eastern Region

Abstract

This Article aimed to 1) review practices of ethnic communities that demonstrate a relationship between community democracy and elements of ethnic culture, and 2) analyse and discuss the results that would lead to prospects of democratic development based on ethnic cultures in northeastern region of Thailand in overall. Qualitative case study method was used in five ethnic communities with proper features for research, Each case employed a group of 18 - 22 key informants in in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, including participant observation in community activities and content analysis of relevant documents. A comparative discourse analysis of language contexts compiled from descriptive information and data triangulation were also implemented so as to obtain accurate information for the description of the results.

            The results showed that elements of community culture can promote qualities of democracy in ethnic communities of northeastern region: 1) community has formed protective barrier through community culture, 2) community democracy always depends on fundamental elements of community, and 3) community democracy is a progression in community culture which develops into community potentials to aid community service, to be applied in public service management, or to implement public policy for the community. These led to significant development of democracy in community; 1) protective democracy - building immunity within the community through community culture development mechanism,  2) direct democracy - election of community representatives or committee to conduct public activities with emphasis on approval from the community, 3) participatory democracy - community members partaking in problem solving through participatory functioning, 4) deliberative democracy -  periodical conference, allocating responsibilities within the community, having transparency among approved leaders in public work performance and seniority system to put credence in agenda screening, allotting management into subsystems to coordinate and organise conference among members. These practices have evolved into schemes for public service performance improvement among community members which was a phenomenon that shaped democratic citizenship suitable for communities that used elements of ethnic culture to improve themselves: 1) building responsibilities that could create administrators in the community, accountable to other members as representatives who assumes more responsibilities towards members of their own community, 2) building citizenship which embodies sense of community into community service, a key principle of building democratic citizenship, and 3) building a civil society that reflects thoughts and needs of a community, bridging the government and the community members in order to secure public interest for both parties, allowing changes in community structure or method of operation to match its context, becoming satisfactory to concerning public agencies, leading to potency of a small society that applies own traditional ethnic culture to live on in democratic society as in modern times.