ABSTRACT
The beginning of local government and the decentralisation movements in Thailand can be traced back more than 100 years. Despite several attempts to nurture and strengthen the concepts and practices of decentralisation in the 1930s and 1940s after the democratic revolution, political instability hindered the growth, if any, of decentralisation. However, from the 1980s to the early 1990s, Thailand experienced rapid economic development that led not only to infrastructure and telecommunication improvements but also to socio-cultural and political developments, particularly political awareness and calls for self-governance nationwide. Since the early 1990s, Thailand has experienced two decades of movements towards more decentralisation (i.e. the transfer of authority, responsibility, and resources from the central government to local ones). While local development is flourishing, there are a number of challenges impeding the moving to more local governance, noticeably the central government bureaucrats’ attempts to maintain and protect their power and interests. Relations between central and local governments in Thailand are those of fluctuation due to political instability caused by a series of coups over the past 60 years, and the latest coup on 22 May 2014 has posed new threats to the already vulnerable local governments.
