ทัศนะของเจ้าหน้าที่รัฐต่อความขัดแย้งและการจัดการความขัดแย้งในสังคมไทย / อังคณา ใจเลี้ยง = Attitudes of government officials on conflict and conflict resolution in the Thai society / Angkana Jaileang
The purpose of this study is to survey the attitudes of officials on conflicts. The survey was done by self-answered questionnaires. Respondents were officials in the public sector and state enterprises which have been dealing with conflict in development projects. The sample size is 444. The hypothesis of the study is that the attitudes of officials on conflict and conflict resolution incline toward authoritarianism. The study has relied on O’Donnell’s framework of authoritarianism and Gene Sharp’s assumption of power of non-violence. The new constitution is also applied as a reference for the new setting of power relations. Data structure in the questionnaire includes 6 important areas : the socioeconomic status of respondents, attitudes towards political environment and the new constitution, bureaucratic duty and responsibilities, conflict, power in conflict, and non-violent conflict resolution. The result shows that officials have a fair knowledge about the constitutional reform and have followed the current issues on people’s protests. They also have the same attitude as the general public on the issue of the officials’ performance, that is, for instance the lack of efficiency in solving conflicts. Public participation which they think to have caused a problem is the road blocked. Officials pay higher attention to the protesters’ demand for public participation in the decision making than the demand for compensation. Officials also see that public organizations engaged in the disputes can play a significant role in conflict resolutions. Regarding to the attitudes toward conflict, officials’ opinions are contradictory. On the one hand, they agree to the principle of rights, liberty and participation of the people. On the other hand, they reject the way the people protest. เท assessing the overall attitudes of officials, the study finds that no less than one-third of the samples incline toward authoritarianism, if a moderate criteria were applied. This is only the result of the contradictory opinions between the principles and practice of non-violent approach to conflict resolution among the officials themselves.
