Deliberative Democracy, Good Governance and Community Problem Solving: a Case Study of Klongkoo Village, Muang District, Phitsanulok Province

Abstract

                This study was a Participatory Action Research (PAR) which highly emphasized a collaboration of many sectors to solve community problems.  The main objective was to solve problems from public service delivery in the community by employing deliberative democracy and the principle of good governance. Four crucial tools, which were expected to promote the principles of deliberative democracy and good governance, were employed in the research process. These were: 1) a form to evaluate dissatisfaction in public service delivery; 2) people scorecard; 3) budget literacy; and 4) problem solving by collective cooperation. Frequency and measures of central tendency were used for quantitative data analysis. Analytic induction was used for qualitative data analysis to interpret and create conclusions based on data obtained from research tools. It was found that the problems of teenagers’ driving motorcycles regardless of safety in the matter of life and property of others at night, and drugs problem, as agreed by the community, were highly critical and needed to be solved urgently. To solve these problems, people and governmental sectors need to correctively cooperate for making community rules, regulations, and practices for sustainable problem solving. Proposals to the government could be made as this study suggests. The governmental agencies could apply the research tools in the process of policy making and policy implementation. It is hoped that government agencies will be able to solve problems and respond to people's needs more efficiently.