- 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 2012, we will conduct data cleaning and statistical data analysis on data gathered from quantitative surveys which were done in 2011 in the Philippines and Indonesia respectively. In Thailand, we will conduct a quantitative survey in August and September after the sampling of local governments and designing the questionnaire for the survey after which statistical data analysis will also be done upon the completion of the quantitative survey there. Beside the statistical data analysis in these three countries, we will set common variables among them for a comparative analysis as well as carry out some supplementary field works 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 the 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 the statistical theories.
In previous studies on local governance in Southeast Asia, they 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. Through conducting a large scale survey of local governments, this project aims to surmount such problems mentioned above. This research project is the first systematic research on the local governance in Indonesia and the Philippines; as for Thailand, this will be the 2nd survey research following the first survey conducted by a research team including Prof. Nagai and Prof. Kagoya, both of whom are our research team members. Moreover, this research project is an epoch-making endeavor aiming for a comparative analysis of local governance in major three Southeast Asian countries.
The expected results of this research project are to show statistically 1) different and common factors of people’s participation in the three countries, 2) the differences in local autonomy in all the three countries, and 3) the features of the relationship between local autonomy and people’s participation in each country.
 Assoc. Prof. Nishimura, presenting the paper on Philippine local governance at the 2012 International Conference UPNCPAG@60 in Manila in June |
 The resthouse (Ta Muen Toch, Thailand) Assoc. Prof. Kobayashi, presenting the paper on Philippine local governance at the 2012 International Conference UP-NCPAG@60 in Manila in June |
 Study meeting at Meiji University in Tokyo in 26 July, 2012 |