Thai People’s Trust in Tambon Administration Organizations: a Comparative Case Study of Chong and Pluknoo Tambon Administration Organizations

Abstract

     The present study presents a combination of qualitative and quantitative research findings with the objective of studying the public’s trust in tambon administration organizations (TAOs) through a comparative study of Chong TAO and Pluknoo TAO focusing on factors influencing public trust. The researcher is interested in studying TAOs that were awarded an outstanding local government from the Office of the Decentralization to the Local Government Organization Committee (DLGOC) for 2011 and those that did not receive the award. It was predicted that Chong TAO, which received the award, should enjoy more public trust than Pluknoo TAO, which did not. The subjects in the sample group for the present study were 200 individuals selected by random sampling from the population of residents living in the Chong and Pluknoo TAO areas.

     According to the research findings, the public’s level of trust in Chong TAO was moderate, while the public’s trust in Pluknoo TAOwas not very high[WK1]. The findings concur with the research hypothesis that Chong TAO should enjoy a higher level of trust than Pluknoo TAO. Factors influencing the level of public trust in Chong TAO and Pluknoo TAO were different. The differing factors influencing the level of public trust were the factor of transparency in TAO work and the factor of politics in the government system. [WK2]These findings support the research hypothesis that the factors influencing public trust in TAOs that received the outstanding TAO award and those that did not receive the award would be different.