- Project Leader : Nishimura Kenichi (Center for International Education and Exchange, Osaka University)
- Collaborators : Nagai Fumio (Graduate School of Law, Osaka City University)
- : Kagoya Kazuhiro (College of Law, Kanto Gakuin University)
- : Kobayashi Jun (Faculty of Humanities, Seikei University)
- : Kikuchi Masao (School of Business Administration, Meiji University)
- : Sunahara Yosuke (Graduate School of Law, Osaka City University)
- : Akizuki Kengo (Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University)
- : Okamoto Masaaki (Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University)
Outline of Research
This research project aims to construct a local government theory in Southeast Asia through conducting a series of surveys in Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia in the middle of 2011.
The first half of 2011 will be devoted to revising questions on the local autonomy and on people’s participation in local governance in the questionnaire which has been designed for the survey research. Some field work to collect information for revising the questionnaire will also be conducted in all three countries.
After conducting quantitative surveys in the three countries in the second half of 2011, the research team will conduct data cleaning and setting common variables among three countries.
In 2012, we shall implement statistical data analysis as well as conduct some supplementary field work for data interpretation.
Description
This research project aims to analyze how, in which way, and under what conditions the autonomy of local governments and people’s participation affect the quality of local governance in three decentralized countries, namely Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. Making good use of the survey data from a research project, “Survey Research on Local Governance in Southeast Asia: Comparative Study on Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines,” we shall analyze the determinant factors of local autonomy and people’s participation which affect the performance of local governance, based on social survey and statistical theory.
Previously, studies on local governance in Southeast Asia mainly concentrated on static analysis of the judicial/institutional arrangements and/or individual case studies. However, the quality of governance is not solely determined by the judicial/institutional arrangement and case studies themselves don’t have universal validity. By conducting a large survey of local governments, this project aims at surmounting the problems mentioned above. This research project is the first systematic research on local governance in Indonesia and the Philippines, as for the Thailand, this will be the 2nd survey research following the 1st survey conducted by a research team including Prof. Nagai and Prof. Kagoya, both of whom are research team members. Moreover, this research project is a ground breaking endeavor to compare the present situation of local governance in three major Southeast Asian countries.
The expected results of this research project are to show statistically 1) differences and common factors of people’s participation in the three countries, 2) differences in local autonomy in the three countries, and 3) features of the relationship between local autonomy and people’s participation in each country.
 At Lembaga Survei Indonesia (LSI), Assoc. Prof. Okamoto (far left) with Dr. Kuskridho Ambardi (Executive Director of LSI) and Dr. Wahyu Prasetyawan (far right) |
 At Social Weather Stations (SWS), (first row, from left to right) Mr. Jay Sandoval & Mr. Vladymir Joseph Licudine of SWS, (second row, from left to right) Prof. Nagai, Assoc. Prof. Nishimura, Assoc. Prof. Kobayashi |