The Formation Process for Civil Society in Northeast Thailand: From the Social Research of Two Villages

This paper on village civil society (prachakhom) as the basis for the emergence of civil society and development in Thailand's northeastern region is the result of the social research supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology(MEXT) of Japan from 2005 - 2007 and 2008 - 2010.

In the twenty-first century, the discussion of the idea of civil society (prachasangkhom) and people's participation began to develop in Thailand. In many forums, Thai scholars proposed a range of ideas and opinions that directly link development with civil society. Furthermore, there has been various research on the development and possibilities for shaping the civil society movement.

In our previous social research, we concluded that prachakhom was the foundation of the formation process for Civil Society. Prachakhom as a gathering of people has been an integral part of Thai society, while the civil society movement was a new idea derived from the West. In this paper, I intend to analyze the two types of prachakhom, both a grassroots type and a top-down type in response to government policies, using quantitative and qualitative data from the case study of two villages in Northeast Thailand.