The Effects of Political Culture and Groups of Social Movements on Democratization in the Northeastern Region of Thailand

Abstract

The objectives of the study were 1) to survey opinions of the public on political culture and groups of social movements in the northeastern region of Thailand, 2) to analyze the relationship between political culture and groups of social movements in the northeastern region and 3) to propose guidelines for development of political culture and groups of social movements and democracy development as perceived by the public. A sample of 317 respondents was purposively surveyed supplemented by in-depth interview of 10 experts in the field. The questionnaire was used for data collection, whose reliability was tested based Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was .96 which is high and acceptable. It was a descriptive approach and used regression analysis for forecasting. The survey results revealed that the public perspective on the political culture was high, of which the parochial political culture and the subject political culture were the highest, whereas the dimensions of stimulation on alertness, mobilizing masses were perceived under the social movements construct. The correlation between the political culture and groups of social movements in the northeastern region was positive and significant. The regression analysis revealed that five determinants to democracy development, namely parochial culture, subject culture, stimulus alertness, grouping with purpose and mobilizing masses. From in-depth interview, ten experts in the field commented in the same direction as the research results.