The Role of Local Government Organizations in Building Grassroots Democracy: A New Institutionalism Analysis

Abstract

This academic article analyzes the role of Thai local government organizations in building grassroots democracy through three strands of new institutionalism: historical institutionalism, sociological institutionalism, and rational choice institutionalism. Rather than treating local governments merely as administrative units, the article considers how local institutions shape democratic practices and civic life at the community level. Historical institutionalism helps explain path dependency and institutional continuity; sociological institutionalism illuminates the influence of informal norms, values, and political culture; and rational choice institutionalism clarifies the incentive structures that shape the behavior of local actors. The synthesis reveals that Thai local government organizations contribute to grassroots democracy by creating spaces for citizens to engage in public affairs, developing community social capital, enabling citizens to recognize that their participation can influence public decisions, and sustaining local institutional arrangements that allow democratic culture to accumulate over time. These roles are conditioned by the relationship between formal rules and informal norms, the presence of mechanisms that allow citizens to experience the consequences of participation, the stock of community social capital, and policy continuity across administrative terms. The article proposes that Thai local governments should be strengthened through institutional reforms that reshape local incentives, the consolidation of civic participation mechanisms in both physical and digital spaces, and partnerships between local government organizations and educational institutions so that democratic learning among children and youth can be meaningfully connected to local governance processes.