Channawoot Chairaksa
Research Topic
Mayoral leadership in promoting urban governance: The case study of Thai local government
Most scholars have authored the articles and studies of mayoral leadership in local government, such as in United States of America, United Kingdom including Thailand. They believe that leadership is a crucial factor to local government development in especially organisational management, local services delivery, local governance and so on. Therefore, the Blair Government promulgated the Local Government Act 2000, which was a part of government’s modernisation programme and created the Greater London Authority (GLA). It was the first time that Mayor of London was elected directly by London electorates. In parallel, there are 25 members of GLA Assembly. This based on the principle of strong executive and check-and-balance-function council. The ultimate aim is to strengthen the mayoral leadership.
In Thailand, the mayoral leadership is also essential to establish local government initiatives and public participation in local public affairs. For example, some research found that 95 percents of initial practices regarding local governance and New Public Management have been innovated by mayor or executives of local authorities. Therefore, it is attractive to make the enquiries and discover the findings of study that how much important mayoral leadership is for urban governance promotion; what relationships between mayoral leadership and urban governance are; and how to build mayoral leadership style.
Research Supervisors
Professor Vivien Lowndes and Dr Matthew Goodwin.
Primary Funding Source
Royal Thai Government Scholarship.
Research Interests
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Local Governance
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Decentralisation and Local Government in Thailand
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Public Participation
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Public Policy and Management