Conditions for effective decentralized governance: The case of Suratthani provincial administrative organization

There are three critical issues facing Suratthani province: first, conflict between central and local government; second, influence of local politicians on the affairs of local government; and third, lack of citizen empowerment. This study, therefore, aims to examine the extent to which those three issues influence the decentralized governance in Suratthani PAO. This research integrates both quantitative method through questionnaire survey data and qualitative method through interviews. The respondents for this study consist of officials and staff of central government, the PAO administrators, PAO members, community leaders and household heads. The independent t-test and ANOVA were used to test the differences between groups. Pearson correlation analysis was used to test the relationship between the independent and the dependent variables. Linear regression and hierarchical regression analysis were used as the appropriate statistical tools to test the hypotheses. The results show that the relationship between central government and local government, influence of local politicians, and citizen participation significantly affect the effectiveness of the decentralized governance in Suratthani province.