พัฒนาการของอำนาจท้องถิ่นในบริเวณลุ่มแม่น้ำบางปะกง และชายฝั่งทะเลตะวันออก พ.ศ. 2440-2516 / สุมาลี พันธ์ุยุรา = The development of local power in the Bangpakong river basin and eastern coast, 1897-1973 / Sumalee Phunyura
The Thesis attempts to understand the development of local power in the Bangpakong river basin and the eastern coast during 1897 -1973. The development of local power in the Bangpakong river basin and the eastern coast throughout this period was closely related to political and economic change. By the virtue of the 1897 Local Administration Act, the central political authority was imposed upon the region. Consequently, certain members of the local power had to adjust to the new situation by acting as agents of the central authority, while some others exploited their new status in the state bureaucracy defending their own interest against that of the state. During the post 1932 Revolution, the local power again readjusted their position, trying to establish political connection with the rising commoner bureaucrats who replaced the aristocrats of the old regime. However the failure of the democratic process soon after made it impossible for them to establish such a fruitful connection. It was not until after 1947, however, that the “Chao Pho” of the eastern coast emerged as a result of the capitalist dynamism in general and the expansion of the cash crops and logging industries in the region in particular, leading to the widely use of powerful arms and gunman to protect their growing economic interest. One of the most obvious phenomena emerging was the “labor camps” controlled by heavily armed gunman. During the 1960s and 1970s, the power and business interests of the “Chao Pho” were further developed under the National Economic and Social Development Plan. They successfully established close connections with state authorities and politicians at the national level and subsequently entered into the national politics themselves, becoming the “Chao Pho” as popularly known.
