INTEGRATION OF BUDDHIST PRINCIPLES TO PROMOTE THE DEMOCRATIC CULTURE OF THE PEOPLE OF NAKHON RATCHASIMA

Abstract

Objectives of this research article were: 1. To study democratic political culture, 2. To study factors affecting democratic political culture, and 3. To present Buddhadhamma integration for promoting democratic political culture among the people, conducted by the mixed methods research. The quantitative research, data were collected using questionnaires with reliability coefficient of 0.884 from 400 samples people, analyzed by frequency distribution, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and stepwise multiple regression analysis. The qualitative research involved in-depth interviews with 18 key informants and focus group discussions with 9 participants.

The research findings revealed that: 1. Democratic political culture was characterized by: 1) respect for rules, acceptance of election results and laws; 2) equality, fairness of all votes and resources; 3) social responsibility, collaborative building of transparent networks; 4) self-responsibility, self-reliance, and using information to manage life; 5) respect for others, compassion, and listening; and 6) respect for differences, valuing and learning from diversity. 2. Factors affecting democratic political culture were found to significantly influence the people's democratic political culture through the indoctrination of Buddhist principles. Statistically significant at the 0.01 and 0.05 levels, collectively predicting 42.1 percent and 43.4 percent of the variance, respectively. 3. Buddhadhamma integration for promoting a democratic political culture was presented, findings were that: 1) Pariyatti Saddharma promoted analytical thinking and reduces dependence on patronage; 2) Pativedha Saddharma, communicated correctly, creating a peaceful society; and 3) Patipatti Saddharma changed behavior, emphasized human dignity, and built a strong political culture.