Effectiveness to Political Participation of People in Chiang Rai under the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, B.E. 2550

Abstract

This research aims to study the effectiveness or level of political participation of Chiang Rai residents under the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, B.E. 2550. The research was proceeded by looking at a random selection of 3,000 samples and conducting a survey. The finding shows that the positive factors for going to use their right to vote are the ability to use standard Thai fluently, income and occupations. It also shows that agriculturists tend to go to use their right to vote the most due to community coffeehouse forum. With regard to gender, it seems that female tend to go to use their right to vote more than male. As for the matter of education, those with higher education tend to go to use their right to vote less. Furthermore, being hill tribes or municipal residents has inversely impact on exercising their voting rights. At the local political participation level, it shows that being able to use standard Thai fluently and living in municipal area are positive factors for political participation. Concerning occupation, agriculturists tend to ignore political activities the most. Moreover, it turns out that being a member of political party, subscribing to weekly–news and joining community coffeehouse forum do not increase opportunity to participate in local political activities.