Participation in Municipality Development Planning: The Comparison of Khon Kaen Municipality and Kalasin Municipality

Abstract

This article looks at Kalasin (smaller municipality) and Khon Kaen (larger municipality) with the following research objectives: 1) to study levels of citizen participation in municipality development planning; 2) to study how people become involved in municipality development planning; 3) to study problems and obstacles of municipality development planning; and 4) to compare people’s participation in municipality
development planning between the smaller and larger municipalities. The research methodology consisted of both qualitative and quantitative
methods, based on a survey sample of 397 respondents from Khon Kaen and 394 respondents from Kalasin. The study found that people’s participation in both municipalities was confined to the beginning of the planning process. Holding civil society forums seemed to show that each municipality provided opportunities for its citizens to participate; however, citizens had few chances to inspect, follow up, and evaluate the plans. Important problems and obstacles to participation were a lack of budget and expertise in some essential fields such as veterinary medicine, nursing and health care. A comparison between the two municipalities showed that level of people’s participation in municipality development planning was higher in the larger municipality (Khon Kaen) than in the smaller municipality (Kalasin). There were several contributing factors: first, Khon Kaen was divided into a number of smaller communities; second, the
Khon Kaen Municipal Council had devolved authority to each community to propose and carry out municipality-funded projects serving community needs; third, the resultant increase in local employment and participation opportunities for local people in regard to project proposals and project management also served to increase stakeholder commitment to the participation process.