Government Budget Allocation in Thailand(การศึกษาเชิงประจักษ์ของความเชื่อมโยงระหว่างปัจจัยทางการเมืองกับการจัดสรรงบประมาณรายจ่ายของรัฐบาลไทยในระดับกระทรวง)

Abstract

The Impact of the Political Background of the Minister and Prime Minister

The focus of this paper is the Thai ministry budget allocation determinations during the period of 1980-2011 in relation to the political backgrounds of the minister and prime minister. The findings reveal a strong political influence in the budget formulation process. The budget shares a ministry receives was found to be dependent on whether the minister-in-charge was inside or outside the parliamentary system. Both advantages and disadvantages were found to exist in relation to ministers and ministry shares of total government budget.

Thai government administrations were found to tactically use their government budgets to reward their loyalists and recruit other political parties into the current cabinet and/or form a coalition in the next election. In addition, when elected government administrations are led by a prime minister who is a former military officer, the administrations devote more budgetary funding to military-related spending. And the non-elected government administrations backed by military juntas are found to allocate their government budget differently from those elected government administrations.