Critique on a research: “Citizen Attitudes toward the Concept of Good Governance: A Survey of the North and Northeast Regions of Thailand (2008)”

1. Critique on a research:
“Citizen Attitudes toward the Concept of Good Governance: A Survey of the
North and Northeast Regions of Thailand (2008)”
DA8110 : Quantitative Research I
July 8, 2020
by
Kan Yuenyong

2. Disclaimer
• No SPSS, therefore R. It should at least demonstrate on how to apply statistical software with a real research (see
next bullet)
• Another interesting research regarding Covid-19 (NBER working paper 27384, June 2020), but it is using Huber-
robust method (also a different kind of OLS: Ordinary Least Squares) and a macro-economics model, too limited time
to make a thorough investigation (i.e. making an understanding through the macro-economics equation, it’s difficult
to make a clear suggestion on an improvement of the research). By the way, it’s highly possible that a statistical
software used in this research will be R.
• R is an open source statistical software, a programming basis not an “instant” statistical package like IBM’s SPSS. R
is a robust open source community. There is even a journal, a peer-reviewed, open-access publication of the R
Foundation for statistical computing, The R Journal available!
• Some great ideas in the latter research are useful and some would be applied in this critics, i.e. a consumer panel of
Nielsen Homescan Data and the problem in “policy communication” and an adjustment by the citizens (aka. rational
expectation in macro-economic model)

4. df = 1;
level of
significance = .05;
χ2 = 3.84
p-value = .01841;
p-value < .05;
χ2 = 5.569;
Therefore, reject H0
Do not reject H0
Region of rejection
of H0
H0: The two variables are independent. There is *no* association between the two variables.
H1: The two variables relate to each other.

7. H0 = High School grade doesn't relate with
University grade
H1 = There is a co-rela;on between High
School grade and University grade
r(10) = .93, p < .01; *sig* -- therefore reject
H0. HS grade relates with U grade (highly co-
relates).
.01 - .20 liJle correla;on
.21 -.50 low correla;on
.51 - .80 avg correla;on
.81 - 1.0 highly correla;on

9. hJps://pdfs.seman;cscholar.org/4331/c9ec1493648494682ea893032917196e462f.pdf

10. Research Objectives
• “Governance reforms in Thailand, taking place in the context of external
donor institution requirements especially after the financial crisis of 1997,
have been supply side, by and large. Scant attention has been paid to the
demand side. What kind of governance do Thai citizens expect or wish to
see? Quite as importantly, what are their values and attitudes toward good
governance? Are those values and attitudes conducive to, and supportive
of, the exercise of good governance? This paper is part of a series that
report on research designed to address some of these questions.”

11. Theory
• “The Thai traditional culture, by contrast, emphasizes hierarchical relationships and patron-client ties. Hierarchy in
social relations means that those higher up in the hierarchy are ascribed certain authoritative powers and
wisdom, and are deferred to by those lower down in the scale. Patron-client linkages imply an exchange
relationship: a patron has the duty to protect and promote the welfare of his clients; a client returns the favor by
obeying and carrying out the wishes of his patron (Samakarn, 2004).”
• “In development administration, the concept of good governance, first proposed by the World Bank and other
donor agencies in the 1990s, has become firmly established. It is one of the United Nations’ Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). Good governance is viewed as a necessary condition for providing an enabling
environment for sustainable development (Schneider, 1999: 7). Successive Thai governments have
acknowledged the principle of good governance, and public sector reforms have been proposed with the
objective of promoting good governance.”
• Why do we have to do this? Who benefit from the changing, the donors or us? (See my recommendation section)

12. Assumptions
• Demographic factors affect attitudes (age has inverse effect)
• Education has positive effect on good governance attitude
• Men are more supportive on good governance than women
• Urbanization and regional (North > Northeast) affect attitudes, according to household’s
income
• Information and knowledge on government generate positive attitude
• Satisfaction and trust in governance affair generate inverse effect, due to lacking of
incentive to monitor the government and to hold its accountability

13. Data set
• 4,785 respondents surveyed in eight provinces in the north and northeastern regions of
Thailand in late 2005 - early 2006.
• Three strata based on degree of urbanization: municipal towns and cities (high degree) with
840 in the North and 840 in the Northeast, tambon (semi-urban) with 585 in the North and 600 in
the Northeast, and rural villages (least degree) with 960 in the North and 960 in the Northeast
• NSO helped designing multistage stratified sampling
• A questionnaire with 70 items: I) demographic & socio-economic, and II) proxy on attitude in
governance

14. Combination of Independent Variables
• Satisfaction with the government’s ability to solve problems (Cronbach’s
alpha = 0.836)
• Trust in public officials (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.861)
• Name recognition of public figures (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.791)
• Knowing citizens’ rights (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.768)

15. Combination of Dependent Variables
• Accountability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.905)
• Participation (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.612)
• Rule of law (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.603)
• Transparency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.846)
• Good governance (with combined 22 items above, Cronbach’s alpha = 0.745)

16. [Accountability]
• Politicians who you’re certain are good persons?
• Politicians whose performance you approve of?
• Politicians who are supported by the majority of the people?
• Politicians who have personally helped you or with whom you’re friendly?

17. [Participation]
• Politics is for politicians. Ordinary people shouldn’t interfere
• Farmers and poor people shouldn’t be involved in protest activities
• It’s more important to focus on basic necessities than to be interested in politics
• Making a living is more important than checking public official’s performance
• People who are more educated have more opportunity to express their political views
than people with little education
• Voting isn’t a duty. Whether one votes depends on whether it’s convenient to do so

18. [Rule of law]
• It’s all right for rich people to be above the law
• You can accept “influential persons” taking unfair advantage of you
• It’s all right to use connections to put one’s children in school or to find them jobs
• It’s all right to sometimes bribe government officials, in order to receive better and more efficient service from
them
• It’s all right for government officials to accept “envelopes” to turn a blind eye on small violations of the law
• Do you think it’s wrong for government officials to accept “envelopes” for speeding up services?
• Government officials know their duties. The people don’t need to advise them on how to do their work
• Government leaders are like the head of family. We should accept and obey their decisions in all matters

19. [Transparency]
• The public must be kept informed about government decisions
• The government must inform the public how it spends its budget
• The public must be informed what their local government does with its budget
• The people can remove politicians who don’t perform well

20. Findings

21. Findings

22. Findings

23. Findings

24. Findings

25. Findings
hJps://bit.ly/3iQjfKa

26. Recommendations
• Theoretical part: Fukuyama’s Governance, possible dimensions and variable setting?
• Natural evolution toward an equal dignity amongst human-being (Hegelian dialectic), therefore “liberal democratic” is a
preferable and final form nation-state.
• A wittering of American led global governance, can we have an alternative governance model within an emerging new
“global order”? Any implication? Do we need to strike a balance between “exogenous” variable vs “endogenous” variable
among the requirement of governance? From Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft [Fukuyama, Identity: Contemporary Identity
Politics and the Struggle for Recognition (2018)]
• What is a sound “conceptual framework” of governance?
• The research does not provide a proper casual linkage between variables, therefore no robust framework on the
governance model.
• Is it possible to generate a linear regression model on governance?
• Without a robust model, how we can make a recommendation to improve governance? If that’s so, can we generate a
“testing” experiment with “control group” on improving governance?
• Data set part: Nielsen Homescan Panel of Households
• Methodological part: Mixed Method

27. Fukuyama’s theoretical foundation

28. A debate: tyranny and philosopher
on Xenophon’s Hiero
“As for the philosopher, he too is right when he refrains from elaborating his theories to the point where they speak
directly to the questions raised by current political affairs: if he did, he would have no time left for philosophy, he
would cease to be a philosopher and hence would cease to have any claim to giving the tyrant politico-philosophical
advice. The philosopher is right to leave the responsibility for bringing about a convergence on the theoretical plane
between his philosophical ideas and political reality to a constellation of intellectuals of all shades (more or less
spread out in time and space); the intellectuals are right to dedicate themselves to this task and, if the occasion
arises, to give the tyrant direct advice when, in their theories, they have reached the level of the concrete problems
raised by current political affairs; the tyrant is right not to follow (and not to listen) to such advice until it has reached
this level.” — Alexandre Kojève, “Tyranny and Wisdom” in “On Tyranny”, p. 175. 1961, 1991, 2000.
“If I had more time than I have, I could state more fully, and pre sumably more clearly, why I am not convinced that
the End State as you describe it, can be either the rational or the merely-factual satisfaction of human beings . For
the sake of simplicity I refer today to Nietzche’s ‘last men.’” — A letter from Leo Strauss to Alexandre Kojève
(22.8.48)

30. Fukuyama’s the origins of political order

31. Fukuyama’s political order and political decay

32. Fukuyama’s governance

33. hJps://slideplayer.com/slide/9240415/

34. Nielsen Homescan Panel of Households
• Our survey was run in April 2020 on the Nielsen Homescan panel of households. This panel consists of
80- 90,000 households who track their spending daily for A.C. Nielsen.
• 13,771 individuals responded to the survey, yielding a response rate of 27%. The response rate
compares favorably to the average response rates of surveys on Qualtrics which is the most commonly
used survey platform for online surveys that estimates a response rate between 5% to 10%.
• Nielsen attempts to balance the panel on nine dimensions: household size, income, age of household
head, education of female household head, education of male household head, presence of children,
race/ethnicity, and occupation of the household head.
• Panelists are recruited online, but the panel is balanced using Nielsen’s traditional mailing methodology.
Nielsen checks the sample characteristics on a weekly basis and performs adjustments when
necessary. Nielsen provides sampling weights to correct for possible imbalances in the composition of
respondents in our survey. All of our reported results use sampling weights.
• Nielsen provides households with various incentives to guarantee the accuracy and completeness of the
information households report. They organize monthly prize drawings, provide points for each instance
of data submission, and engage in ongoing communication with households. Panelists can use points to
purchase gifts from a Nielsen-specific award catalog. Nielsen structures the incentives to not bias the
shopping behavior of their panelists. The KNCP (Kilts-Nielsen Consumer Panel) has a retention rate of
more than 80% at the annual frequency. Nielsen validates the reported consumer spending with the
scanner data of retailers on a quarterly frequency to ensure high data quality.
• NBER working paper 27384.

35. Alternative Data set
• Other data set are available? I.e. political party data set? Online game data set? Polling institute?
• Other “big data” validating data set, i.e. Google’s GDELT project (Global Database of Events, Language,
and Tone)

36. END