Conflict, Legitimacy and Government Reform: Equitable Allocation of ...

Citizen Politics in Checking of the State Power for Equitable Allocation of Resources
Civil Politics: Institutional aspect, after
the Promulgation of 2550 Constitution
Prapas Pintoptaeng
The purpose of this article is to follow
up and assess the effects of the
p r o m u l g a t i o n o f t h e 2 0 0 7
constitution in terms of civil politics. What
progress has been made, and are there
enough established institutions, mechanisms,
processes, and space for civil politics to
enable it to successfully push for issuing
public policy and monitor performance of
the state.
During the last two or three decades,
the problem of inadequate representative
democracy in Thai society has brought about
an expansion and enhancement of civil
politics under the slogan “decrease the state’s
power, increase the power of the people”.
This is an essential aim of both the 1997 and
t h e 2 0 0 7 c o n s t i t u t i o n s . T h e 2 0 0 7
c o n s t i t u t i o n d e s i g n e d m e a s u r e s f o r
institutionalization of civil politics in many
provisions and articles. For example,
c o n c e r n i n g t h e p r o c e s s o f p e o p l e ’s
p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n p u b l i c p o l i c y, t h e
constitution establishes a mechanism to
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