PEOPLE’S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AFFECTING GENERAL ELECTION VOTING ON 24 MARCH 2019 AT UBONRAT DISTRICT, KHON KAEN PROVINCE

Abstract

Objectives of this research paper were: 1. To study opinions on the level of political participation; 2. To compare opinions on political participation, and 3. To apply Buddhism in promoting people’s political participation affecting general election voting on 24th March 2019 at Ubonrat District, Khon Kaen Province. Research methodology was the mixed methods. The quantitative research collected data by a questionnaire with a confidence value of 0.966 from 397 samples at Ubonrat District using Taro Yamane's formula. The data were analyzed by frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation. and t-test and F-test. The qualitative research collected data from 9 key informants, namely, academic monks. political science scholar and community leaders by in-depth-interview and analyzed by content descriptive interpretation.

The results of the research were as follows: level of political participation, by overall, was at a high level (  = 3.85) The results of the comparison of political participation were found that people with different gender, age, status, and occupation had different political participation. People with different monthly income, did not have different political participation. The application of Buddhism in promoting people’s political participation that affected the general election on March 24, 2019, Ubolrat District, Khon Kaen Province was found that the principle of Aparihaniya-dhamma should be applied to promote effective political participation.