Abstract
Thailand is administratively divided into 75 provinces. Each is headed by a provincial governor, an appointed government official working under the supervision of the Ministry of the Interior. There is a debate on whether the provincial governors should carry on working as the appointed government officials or whether they should be elected. A demand for a policy on election of provincial governors has been made on the grounds that public administration at provincial level should be decentralised. It is believed that the local government would be run more effectively under the elected governor. The research investigates public opinion including the views of local residents, government officials, senior public administrators, and politicians. Investigation was also made to find out what the outcomes would be if there were election of provincial governors. Following the theoretical framework and the hypothetical assumption, the research findings indicate that the policy on election of provincial governors is unlikely to benefit the whole nation. The present socio-economic situation regarding social and cultural values, educational and economic development is shown not to be conducive to the positive outcomes of the policy. The social and cultural values associated with the traditional way of thinking and the attitude of the people towards politics, electoral process on the one hand, and political groups on the other hand are proved to be influential to the policy. Such values have caused the delay of political development which do not help to produce stable and efficient local government. Besides, the economic development regarding standards of education and income level of the population have affected political factors including the strength of the party system, and democratic stability. Additionally, the levels of economic development do not help to create strong pressure groups to keep a balance of power among the ruling parties. The outcome of the exploration of support for the policy on governorship election indicate almost no positive outlook for the future of local government. The majority of the respondents (on the part of local residents, government officials, and senior public administrators) show their disagreement with the policy. They believe that the introduction of such a policy would not create better provincial public administration. Neither would it be run more effectively under the control of elected governors. Nevertheless, the remaining respondents, the politicians, believe the opposite. However, even though the majority are unfavourable to the adoption of the policy they believed, on the other hand, that the election of provincial governors would strengthen the party system since local government might be able to produce a fundamental base for a national party.