BUDDHIST CITIZENS IN DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM

Abstract

This article would like to present the concept of Buddhist citizenship and the development of democracy. Citizenship building is essential to the development of democracy. Democracy can be achieved not only by having a good constitution. but the people must be democratic citizens as well. In Thailand, there has been a multi-party effort to drive citizenship to support sustainable democratic development. But in reality, there are still problems and limitations in driving. This is because Thailand's citizen-building process is based on Western philosophical thinking that places individualist human values as the basis for driving citizen-building in a Western democratic system. The drive to drive the creation of citizens under the aforementioned principles does not match the reality of Thai society based on Buddhist philosophy and idealism, creating citizenship based on Buddhist philosophy as a new alternative for the society in Thailand. Creating Citizens in Thai Democracy.