The Movement of People's Politics in Democratisation Process in Thailand

This paper aims to explore the concept of people's politics and its application to the Thai democratic movement. Although Thailand became a democratic country more than 80 years ago (1932), the problems of inactive participation, political conflicts and political unconsciousness are still clearly seen today. The attempts to bring top down into bottom up democracy became a new approach in the new Thai Constitution (2007). Both the political development council and local organization council Acts have been established to support people's active involvement. People's participation has also been launched throughout the country. Both the best practices and the drawbacks of people's politics in the political movement towards democracy will be examined in the paper. The grassoots' movement for human security, equity and opportunity will be studied as an example of the strengthening of people's politics in terms of deliberative democracy, civic education and community democracy. The roles of the people's movement through the works of Center for People's Political Development Center supported by King Prajadhipok's Institute in 48 centers/provinces during the last decade will be reviewed and investigated for the success of people's politics development in the future.