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Participation In Student Government And Students' Sense Of Political Efficacy Of Four Thai High Schools

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Participation In Student Government And Students' Sense Of Political Efficacy Of Four Thai High Schools

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A Ben & Howeti tntormaiion Company
300Norin ZeeC Road. Ann Arbor M i 4 8 106-1346 USA
313 761-4700 800.521-0600
PARTICIPATION IN STUDENT GOVERNMENT AND
STUDENTS' SENSE OF POLITICAL EFFICACY
OF FOUR THAI HIGH SCHOOLS
by
Vacharin Chansilp
A Dissertation Presented to the
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Political Science)
December 1994
Copyright 1994 Vacharin Chansilp
UMI Nuaber: 9600961
OKI Microfora 9(00961
Copyright 1995, by OMI Coapany. All rights reserved.
This eicrofora edition is protected against unauthorized
copying under Title 17, United States Code.
UMI
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY PARK
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90007
This dissertation, w ritten by
under the direction of h..\£.... D issertation
Com m ittee, and approved by all its members,
has been presented to and accepted b y The
Graduate School, in partial fulfillm ent of re
quirem ents for the degree of
D O C T O R OF PH ILO SO PH Y
Dean of Graduate Studies
Date ..N«v.embejc..^,19.9A
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
£.\....
Chairperson
!r£;nv>....
The development of Thai student government has
not been successful because many school principals and
instructors have been unsure about the value of student
government participation in providing participatory
skills and in developing students' sense of personal
and political efficacy. No empirical research offers
knowledge for these school principals and instructors
concerning the relationship between student government
participation and a sense of personal and political
efficacy. This study fills the research gap. The study
is based on the participatory democracy theory that
student government participation, one kind of nongovern
mental authority decision making, may contribute to par
ticipatory skills and a sense of personal and political
efficacy. Four Thai high schools in Nakhonratsima
province comprised the sample for this study. The
research findings show that (a) the more participation
in an open student government climate, the higher the
sense of personal and political efficacy; (b) student
government participants had a higher sense of personal
and political efficacy than did nonparticipants; (c)
student government participants from private schools
felt more politically efficacious than did participants
from public schools; (d) female, better-educated student
government participants were more likely to have a
higher sense of personal and political efficacy than
male, less-educated participants; (e) age did not have
an effect on sense of personal or political efficacy
among student government participants.
(Copies are available exclusively from Micrographics
Department, Doheny Library, University of Southern
California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0192.)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Z am grateful to my parents for the support they
gave me during my education in the doctoral level and for
convincing me that each difficult task could be accom
plished if we try hard. Special thanks go to Dr. Stanley
Rosen, my dissertation chairman, who enthusiastically took
care of each step of my dissertation writing and provided
continual encouragement.
I wish to express my appreciation to Dr. Alison D.
Renteln, who not only edited and gave worthwhile comment
on the dissertation, but also relieved me of stress while
pursuing the degree. I wish to thank Dr. William Maxwell
for his assistance with the methodological part of the
dissertation and for his hospitality in becoming a member
of the dissertation committee.
I thank Jerry Byrd, who edited and typed the final
copy of the dissertation. I am grateful to Chukiat Uliss,
my best friend, who was supportive. Finally, I wish to
acknowledge the works of Pateman, Almond and Verba,
Peterson, and Mill which inspired me to conduct this
research on political socialization.
ii
Chapter
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
1. INTRODUCTION.................................. 1
Organization of the Research............... 1
Definition of Concepts...................... 2
Extracurricular Activities ............. 2
Sense of External Political Efficacy . . 2
Sense of Internal Political Efficacy . . 2
Student Government ...................... 3
Student Government Climate ............. 3
Purpose of the Study........................ 5
Background of the Problem ................. 6
Statement of the Problem.................... 9
Research Questions.......................... 10
Hypotheses................................... 11
Significance of the Study................. 12
Limitations of the Study.................... 14
Delimitations of the Study................. 16
2. POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION IN SCHOOLS............. 17
Political Socialization in Schools. .... 17
3. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THAI EDUCATION AS SEEN IN
FOUR THAI STUDENT GOVERNMENTS............. 28
Schooling in Nakhonratsima Province .... 30
General Aspects of Student Government . . . 35
Extent of Authority...................... 35
iii
Structural Design Types of Student
Government............................ 36
Elements of student Government ......... 37
Four Thai Student Governments............. 39
Saint Mary Wittaya School............... 39
Assumption School........................ 46
Boonlua Wittayanusorn School ........... 48
Chokechai Samukkee School............... 50
Comparison of Thai and American Student
Government structure .................... 51
Committees.............................. 52
Election Procedures and Candidate
Eligibility.......................... 53
Type of Government...................... 54
4. DECISION-MAKING CLIMATE OF STUDENT GOVERN
MENTS IN FOUR THAI SCHOOLS................. 55
Chokechai Samukkee School ................. 55
Saint Mary wittaya School................. 57
Boonlua Wittayanusorn School............... 57
Assumption School .......................... 61
5. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ........................ 63
Theory of Participatory Democracy ......... 63
Sense of Personal and Political Efficacy. . 69
Application of the Theories to This Study . 78
The Relationships between Participation
in an Open Student Government Climate
and Sense of Personal and Political
Efficacy............................ 79
iv
The Relationship between Thai Student
Government Membership and Students'
Sense of Personal and Political
Efficacy................................. 79
The Relationship between Student Government
Membership and Sense of Personal and
Political Efficacy, Controlling for
the Type of School..................... 80
The Relationship between student Government
Membership and Sense of Personal and
Political Efficacy, Controlling for
Gender.............................. 85
The Relationship between Student Government
Membership and Sense of Personal and
Political Efficacy, Controlling for
the Age and Educational Level............ 88
Summary..................................... 90
6. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE...................... 94
Relationships between Family, School,
Work Place, and church Participation
and Sense of Personal and Political
Efficacy................................ 95
Cross-national Studies .................. 96
Research Aims........................ 96
Theoretical Frameworks............... 97
Research Findings .................... 99
Case Studies......................... . 105
Participation in Decision Making in
the Family..........................106
Participation in Decision Making in
the School.................. 110
Participation in Decision Making in
the Church.................. Ill
Participation in Decision Making in
the Work Place..................... 112
v
Eff*ct of Demographic Variables on the
Relationship between Family, School,
Work Place, and Church Participation
and Political Orientation..................125
Impact of Extracurricular Activities on
Social and Political Orientations. . . - 128
Thai Research Concerning Management and
the Problems of Thai Student Government. 132
Application of the Literature Review to
the Study............... 137
7. METHODOLOGY............ 140
The Conceptual Framework...................... 140
Instrumentation and Data Collection .... 141
Measurement................................... 142
Analytical Tools...............................145
8. FINDINGS......................................... 147
Overall Relationships ...................... 147
Crosstabs Analysis ...................... 148
Scattergrams ............................ 151
Student Government Membership and Efficacy. 153
Efficacy by Type of School. ................157
Efficacy by Gender.............................160
Efficacy by Level of Education................164
Summary of Major Findings Related to the
Stated Hypotheses.......................... 168
9. DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 170
Summary of Theoretical Framework............. 170
Discussion of the Findings....................171
Conclusions................................... 176
vi
Implications of the Study Findings............ 177
Recommendations for Future Research .... 179
BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................183
APPENDICES. ..................................... 192
A. QUESTIONNAIRE....................................193
B. RELIABILITY OF THE SCALES.......................199
vii
Pag*
43
45
47
148
149
150
155
156
158
159
161
163
viii
LIST OF TABLES
Occupations of Fathers of Students at Saint
Mary Wittaya...................................
Student Representation at Saint Mary Wittaya
by Grade.......................................
Occupations of Fathers of Students at
Assumption School ............................
Statistical Output of Multiple Regression
Analysis of the Relationships between Par
ticipation and Sense of Personal Efficacy,
with Sense of Political Efficacy as the
Dependent Variable.............. ............
Relationship between Participation in an Open
Student Government Climate and Sense of
Personal Efficacy ............................
Relationship between Participation in an Open
Student Government climate and Sense of
Political Efficacy. .... .................
Relationship between Student Government
Membership and Sense of Personal Efficacy . .
Relationship between Student Government
Membership and Sense of Political Efficacy. .
Relationship between Student Government
Membership and Sense of Personal Efficacy,
Controlling for the Type of School (Private
or Public)....................................
Relationship between Student Government
Membership and Sense of Political Efficacy,
Controlling for the Type of School...........
Relationship between Participation in an Open
Student Government Climate and Sense of
Personal Efficacy, Controlling for Gender . .
Relationship between Participation in an Open
Student Government Climate and Sense of
Political Efficacy, Controlling for Gender. .
13. Relationship between Participation in an Open
Student Government Climate and Sense of
Personal Efficacy, Controlling for the Level
of Education..................................... 165
14. Relationship between Participation in an Open
Student Government Climate and Sense of
Political Efficacy, Controlling for the Level
of Education..................................... 167
ix
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1. Thailand......................................... 40
2. Nakhonrataina Province.......................... 41
3. Relationship between Participation in an Open
Student Government Climate and Sense of
Personal Efficacy ............................ 152
4. Relationship between Participation in an Open
Student Government Climate and Sense of
Political Efficacy...............................154
x
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Organization of the Research
Chapter 1 introduces the organization of the
study, the definitions of concepts applied in the study,
the study's purpose, the background and statement of the
problem, the research questions, the hypotheses, the sig
nificance of the study, and the limitations of the study.
Chapter 2 provides an overview of political socialization
of school and aspects of student government. Chapter 3
describes student governments in four Thai high schools
which constituted the sample for the study. Chapter 4
presents a discussion of the decision-making climate of
student governments in the four Thai schools in this
sample, based on interviews with advisors at these
schools. Chapter 5 presents the theoretical framework of
the study, in which the relationship between the theory of
participatory democracy and a sense of personal and poli
tical efficacy is elaborated. Chapter 6 reviews the
existing literature, including cross-national and case
studies of the relationships between participation in
various phases of life and sense of personal and political
efficacy. Chapter 7 presents the methodology utilized in
1
the study, including a description of the sample and the
measurement of independent and dependent variables. In
Chapter 8 the findings of the study are presented and
analyzed. In Chapter 9, the implications of the findings
are discussed, conclusions are drawn from the study, and
recommendations for future research are presented.
Definitions of Concepts
The following concepts are conceptually and opera
tionally defined for use in this study.
Extracurricular Activities
Activities which offer non-academic credit or no
credit and in which students voluntarily participate out
side of class (McKown, 1952).
Sense of External Political
Efficacy
This concept refers to the belief that public
officials pay attention and respond to the interests of
individual people. This is sometimes referred to as the
image of government and political system responsiveness
(Lane, 1959, p. 249).
Sense of Internal Political
Efficacy
This concept refers to the belief that people con
sider themselves to be well qualified for participation in
2
political affairs, and that they can understand political
events and governmental principles. In other words,
people imagine themselves to be effective elements in
democratic government (Lane, 1959, p. 149).
Student Government
An organized group of students chosen by the
student body to represent the interests of all students in
the school. In the existing literature, the term "student
government" is generally used interchangeably with the
terms "student council" and "student senate."
Student Government Climate
This term refers to the atmosphere in which
student government participants take part in the decision
making process of student government. The methods which
student government advisors use to control the decision
making process of the student government may result in a
variety of student government climates. No literature was
found regarding climates of the student government
decision-making process; however, the work of Ehman (1980)
on classroom climates related to decision-making processes
is deemed to be analogous to student government climate,
and is applied in the present study to student government
climate.
3
According to Ehman (1980), the classroom climate
is "open” when teachers allow students equal opportunities
to express their opinions freely during classroom deci
sions. Teachers listen to the various opinions of
students in the process of making classroom decisions,
students also have the opportunity to present all sides of
questions, even though their positions may be controvers
ial. After the students have expressed their opinions,
the teacher may approve and implement some or all of the
students' decisions. In contrast to this "open" classroom
climate, teachers may conduct the classroom decision
making process in a more authoritarian manner in which the
students have less chance to express their opinions; this
classroom climate is termed “closed.**
Applying the concepts of Ehman concerning class
room climate to student government climate, the atmosphere
of the student government decision-making process is
“open" when student government advisors allow student
government participants to have equal opportunities to
present their opinions freely. In this climate, student
government advisors listen to the opinions of the partici
pants, who are allowed to discuss all sides of issues and
to take on controversial issues. After discussing issues,
advisors may agree with the student participants' opinions
and implement some or all of them. In contrast to this
4
"open" student government climate, the "closed" student
government climate occurs when student government advisors
exercise a more authoritarian role in the student govern*
ment decision-making process.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to provide a clearer
picture of the importance of participation in an open
student government climate, which may be particularly
helpful to school administrators and instructors who are
skeptical about the value of student government. The
study examines the possibility that participation in an
open student government climate may help students to
develop their sense of personal efficacy. Based on a
successful experience in student government marked by an
"open" climate, students can grow to feel self-confident
about their capacity to control their direct environment.
This self-confidence of students can consequently be
applied in a broader political sphere, resulting in a
spillover effect in which they experience an enhanced
sense of political efficacy.
The study also examines three possible bivariate
relationships: (a) the relationship between participation
in an open student government climate and a sense of per
sonal and political efficacy, (b) the relationship between
5
student government membership and a sense of personal and
political efficacy, and (c) the relationship between par
ticipation in an open student government climate and a
sense of personal and political efficacy, controlled for
gender, age, and level of education.
Background of the Problem
In Thailand during the reign of Chulalongkorn,
extracurricular activities were introduced into the school
system; these activities included sports clubs and "Wai
JChru ceremonies" (in which homage was paid to the
teacher). However, there was little or no interest in
student government because it was believed that the demo
cratic concept of student government would tend to under
mine the monarchical system which still prevailed in that
period. During the period before World War I, Thailand's
preparation to join the war influenced the nature of these
extracurricular activities, which then emphasized sports
clubs, military drills, and boys' and girls' scout clubs.
In 1932, Thailand's political regime changed from
a monarchy to a democracy. The Thai government sought to
inculcate in the masses the principles and practices of
democratic citizenship. Many Thai educational officials
were sent to study abroad, especially to the United
States. These officials were greatly influenced by the
6
Progressive educational movement led by John Dewey. Dewey
believed that students could not only develop their intel
lectual abilities through studying the secular subjects in
the classrooms, but they could also learn social and
political life through joining school extracurricular pro
grams outside the classroom. This principle of learning
outside the classroom was based on Dewey's basic idea of
"learning by doing." Applied to student government, this
theory held that students learn interpersonal relationship
skills and participatory skills through participation in
these extracurricular activities. Returning to Thailand,
these officials introduced the "learning by doing" concept
into the Thai educational system. As a result, the scope
of extracurricular activities went beyond the narrow
emphasis of sports clubs and "paying homage to teachers"
to include student government, debate clubs, academic
clubs, drama clubs, and music clubs.
Student governments were first established in
Bangkok schools, with the intent to provide students
with direct experiences in democratic practice. However,
Thai student government developed slowly, chiefly because
of the many military interventions in major social insti
tutions during this period. Various sectors of the mili
tary periodically held governmental power, and they looked
with disfavor on such participatory activities as student
7
government. In fact, Thai military regimes prohibited
student government from 1957 to 1967.
In 1967, when the Thai government returned to
civilian rule, student government was revitalized and
extended to all levels of education, from primary school
through college. In higher education, a National Student
Center of Thailand (NSCT) was established as the repre
sentative organization for all university and college
students. The scope of participation in NSCT was not
limited to school affairs but was expanded to contemporary
Thai political, social, and economic issues.
In 1971 the civilian government of Thailand was
overthrown, and General Thanom retook power. However,
Thanom did not prohibit the existing NSCT or school
student government programs. The NSCT continued to
develop and, in fact, became an organizing focus for
resistance to General Thanom's administration. It spear
headed massive demonstrations that led to restoration of
civilian rule from 1973 through 1976.
From 1976 through 1978, the national government,
realizing the demonstrated political power of the NSCT,
feared that actions by the student government and the NSCT
could lead to political instability, and thus restricted
the permissible activities of both student government and
the NSCT. Sports and some cultural and social activities
8
were permitted, but only under the close scrutiny and con
trol of school and university instructors.
This strong control was relinquished in 1979, and
student government and the NSCT have been revitalized. At
the primary and secondary levels, student government and
other extracurricular activities have been strongly sup
ported by the Board of Education's national education
plan. Specifically, Policy 7 of the board's plan supports
educational activities and programs which help to develop
democracy in Thailand.
Theoretically, schools can inculcate democratic
ideas in students by offering civics curricula in class
rooms. Practically, schools can provide students oppor
tunities to practice participatory skills through extra
curricular activities, especially student government.
Both methods are in harmony with the stated aims of
national policy as expressed by the national education
plan presented by the Board of Education (1992, p. 11),
and both methods should be applied at all levels of
education in Thailand.
Statement of the Problem
Even though student government programs have been
established in many schools in Thailand, they have not
received enthusiastic support from faculty. Most Thai
9
instructors havs not percsivsd tha importance of student
government in providing students chances for practicing
participatory skills. They have not agreed that partici
pation in student government develops the students' sense
of political efficacy, which can lead to the students'
political participation in adulthood.
There has been no reported research which examined
the possible relationship between participation in student
government and the participant's sense of personal or
political efficacy. The present study was designed to
fill that research gap. If the study establishes a
relationship between such participation and the partici
pant's sense of personal and/or political efficacy, these
results could be valuable to educators as they seek to
implement effective methods for carrying out the intent of
the national education plan as it relates to increasing
students' experience in participatory democracy.
Research Questions
The study sought to answer the following research
questions.
1. Are there multivariate relationships among
participation in an open student government climate, sense
of personal efficacy, and sense of political efficacy?
10
la. Is there a relationship between participation
in an open student government climate and the participat
ing students' sense of personal and political efficacy?
2. Is there a relationship between student
government membership (nonparticipants or participants)
and a sense of personal and political efficacy?
3. Controlling for gender, is there a bivariate
relationship between participation in an open student
government climate and the participating students' sense
of personal and political efficacy?
4. Controlling for level of education, is there a
bivariate relationship between participation in an open
student government climate and the participating students'
sense of personal and political efficacy?
5. Controlling for the kind of school, is there
a relationship between participation in an open student
government climate and the participating students' sense
of personal and political efficacy?
Hypotheses
Based on the above research questions, the
following hypotheses were examined in this research.
1. There are multivariate relationships among
participation in an open student government climate, sense
of personal efficacy, and sense of political efficacy.
11
1.1 There Is a relationship between participation
in an open student government climate and the participat
ing students' sense of personal efficacy.
1.2 There is a relationship between participation
in an open student government climate and the participat
ing students' sense of political efficacy.
2. Student government participants tend to have a
higher sense of personal and political efficacy than non
participants in student government.
3. Older student government participants tend to
have a higher sense of personal and political efficacy
than younger participants in student government.
4. Hale student government participants tend to
have a higher sense of personal and political efficacy
than female participants in student government.
5. Better-educated student government partici
pants have a higher sense of personal and political
efficacy than less-educated participants in student
government.
Significance of the Study
The results of this study contribute knowledge in
three fields: (a) political socialization, (b) compara
tive education, and (c) political theory.
12
In terns of political socialization, the findings
of the study will show whether or not student governnent
participation is a socializing agent that teaches deno-
cratic skills. It will contribute to the body of knowl
edge regarding political socialization because the exist
ing literature has been concerned with the political
socialization process through fanily, classroom, and work
place, but not through student governnent.
In comparative education, the research concerning
student government is voluminous in American educational
research. However, this research has emphasized the case
study of American schools. The findings of this study may
stimulate the interest of American education researchers
to use the findings to compare student government in
Thailand and America.
Regarding political theory, the results of this
study may be applied to the question of whether or not
participation in student government helps participants to
develop their sense of personal and political efficacy.
It may increase the accuracy of participatory democracy
theory, which to date has studied the influence of work
place, family, school, and church participation on the
development of one's sense of personal and political
efficacy, but has not addressed the influence of student
13
government participation in enhancing a sense of personal
and political efficacy.
Limitations of the Study
Due to budget limitations, the sample for this
study to examine the relationship between student govern
ment participation and students' sense of personal and
political efficacy was limited to four schools in the
Nakhonratsima province in northeastern Thailand.
Nakhonratsima province was chosen as the sample source
because of two interesting characteristics.
First, the idea of practicing participatory skills
through student government activities has been effectively
implemented in private and public schools in this province
more than in other provinces in the northeastern region.
This may be the result of enthusiastic support by
Nakhonratsima province education officers. When the
Ministry of Education held a contest regarding the
development of student government activities, the compe
tition among private and public schools in this province
was spirited. The 1994 competition was won by Saint Mary
Wittaya School, which was judged to have the most effect
ive student government activities in the region.
Second, Nakhonratsima is the second largest
province in Thailand in terms of population. Moreover,
14
the province is located near the Bangkok metropolitan
area. Thus, the province may be suitably representative
of the citizens of both Bangkok and the northeastern
region. Even though the four schools in Nakhonratsima
province may not be representative of the populations of
other regions, they may present a clear picture of the
relationship between student government and sense of
personal and political efficacy in all Thai schools.
This study would have produced more detailed
results if the scope had been expanded to include an
examination of the relationship between sense of political
efficacy and level of students' political participation.
That relationship was not examined due to the necessity of
limiting the scope of the study.
Even though the actual political participation of
high school students outside of their high school environ
ment was not addressed in this study, the sense of politi
cal efficacy is an important variable for study. The
literature has repeatedly demonstrated that a feeling of
political competence is associated with actual political
participation, and that adults who have a greater sense of
political efficacy tend to have higher levels of political
participation. For example, Conway (1991, p. 52) reported
that a sense of internal and external political efficacy
among Americans was related to voting turnout for
15
Presidential elections. Peterson (1990) found that an
increase in active participation in the family, workplace,
and church was associated with an increased sense of poli
tical efficacy, which in turn led to increased levels of
political participation.
16
CHAPTER 2
POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION IN SCHOOLS
This chapter presents an overview of how people
are taught about political institutions and develop their
political orientation. The discussion presents the
potential benefits of political socialization in schools
through formal classroom and extracurricular activities,
including student government, in Thailand and several
other countries.
Political Socialization in Schools
Most developing countries have attempted to move
their traditional societies toward greater urbanization,
industrialization, and democratization similar to that of
Western democracies. Thailand is not an exception to this
trend.
Educational institutions are not only important
sources of modern scientific technologies necessary for
successful industrialization; they also serve as labora
tories for socialization in the thrust toward democratiza
tion. Easton (1965), Langton (1969), and Jaros (1973)
have posited that schools not only transmit people's
support of ongoing political systems from generation to
17
generation, but also prepare people for good citizenship,
even in tines of changing political regimes.
In the case of Thailand, students have been taught
about democratic values both in the formal curriculum and
through extracurricular activities. According to the
democratic theory taught in Thai schools, people should
practice democratic principles, including (a) respect for
individuals, (b) cooperative participation in governmental
activities, and (c) faith in reasonable and logical
methods of Inquiry and discussion.
Respect for individuals is the belief that each
person's ideas are worthy of respect from other people,
that each person should have an equal chance to express
those ideas freely, and that each person should listen
patiently and fairly to the opinions of others.
Participation is a basic element of democracy.
People should have a chance to participate and cooperate
in decision-making processes concerning all circumstances
of life. In the decision-making process, they should
consider each issue rationally. For instance, when people
are young, they should have opportunities to participate
in the family decision-making process. A question may be
raised as to whether or not children have sufficient
maturity to participate in family decision making in a
meaningful way. Current research (e.g., Easton & Dennis,
18
1967) implies that childran as young as thosa in grad* 3
can participate meaningfully in family decision making and
can thereby develop a sense of political efficacy.
When they attend primary school, secondary school,
or university, students should have opportunities to join
in the decision-making process of student government
activities. When they graduate and enter the work force,
they should have opportunities to cooperate and partici
pate in decision-making processes regarding both social
and political affairs. Successful experiences in decision
making should nurture a faith in continued use of reason
able and logical methods of inquiry and discussion.
In the school setting, socialization into a demo
cratic way of life can be achieved in two ways: (a)
learning in the formal classroom and (b) participation
in extracurricular activities. In the formal classroom,
students learn about the political system and ideology,
and they develop their sense of political efficacy through
study of the required civic curricula. The formal class
room's emphasis is on theory rather than learning through
practical application. Extracurricular activities teach
students political and participatory skills in a less
theoretical but more practical way.
Extracurricular activities may be defined as that
part of the curriculum which provides experiences not
19
usually provided in the typical classroom setting. Zn the
extracurricular area, emphasis is on voluntary participa
tion in out-of-class hours for reasons other than receiv
ing academic credit.
There are many types of extracurricular activi
ties: student government, community activities (such as a
neighborhood clean-up campaign), social and welfare clubs,
religious clubs, relief organizations (such as the Junior
Red Cross), purely social activities (parties, picnics,
dining), athletics, school publications, drama and public
speaking, musical activities, academic subject clubs, and
homeroom activities (Edgar, Johnston, & Faunce, 1952,
pp. 13-15).
While participation in student government,
athletic, musical, and social extracurricular programs are
not expressly political, they provide students the experi
ence in cooperative group processes and leadership skills.
These participatory skills have value in preparing
students to become active citizens in adulthood.
Participation in student government activities can
teach democratic values, particularly to people in commun
ist countries such as Poland and the newly independent
states of the former Soviet Union, third world countries
such as Sudan, and other countries with specific problems
20
to b« addressed by their educational system, such as
Jordan. Each type of situation is described below.
The former soviet states and Poland are good
examples of countries in which the failure of communist
governments has demonstrated that the politics and
economics of a free democratic society were preferable,
and has sparked an interest in education for democracy.
As these countries undergo basic changes to their govern
mental systems, they also seek basic educational reform.
In the case of the former Soviet Union, Lada
Bestuzhev reported that the old education system empha
sized an authoritarian manner. Teachers were virtual
dictators in the classroom, intimidating students at will
and forcing students to obey their instructions without
argument. This socializing pattern was successful at that
time because the children were socialized by authoritarian
parents as well. Today, after the collapse of these
socialist regimes, the authoritarian family is disappear
ing and being replaced by the egalitarian family, and the
education system can now be reconstructed to embrace demo
cratic ideals. This presents the opportunity for students
to realize a more genuine student self-government in the
school administration. Students will now be able to
develop the feeling that they are at least partly respons
ible for the management of their schools, perhaps even to
21
the selection of some nonacademic employees. Teachers and
principals are being forced to abandon autocratic methods
of intimidation and authoritarianism and to support these
changes toward participatory democracy in the schools.
In the case of Poland, Ravitch (1991) has reported
that learning democracy in the school is being realized
through several sources, such as civics curriculum and
participation in extracurricular activities, including
student government. With regard to participation in
student government, students are directly experiencing the
democratic processes. Student government participants now
practice the ideals of leadership, tolerance, compromise,
and cooperation. Ravitch stressed:
Participation in student government is
very important as a training ground for
the democratic process. It helps to
develop leaders among students. It
teaches the leaders to listen to all
shades of opinion. It teaches them the
importance of having impartial rules and
of keeping a record of their discussions.
It teaches them to win without being
arrogant and dictatorial and to lose
without being fearing that they will be
crushed or destroyed. It teaches them to
be sensitive to the needs of others and
how to work with others to get something
done. (1991, p. 50)
In addition to the situations described in Poland
and countries of the former Soviet Union, contributions to
democratic reform through the educational system are also
popular in third world countries such as Sudan. After
22
Sudan gained independence from England in 1956, the
country was controlled by a military regime until 1961,
when that regime collapsed. The civilian government which
assumed political power has had a keen interest in the
potential role of educational reform in addressing prob
lems such as the conflict between Africans and Arabs in
the northern region and Arabs and Muslims in the southern
region. Two specific actions are pertinent to this
review; (a) the promotion of multicultural education in
secondary schools, and (b) government encouragement of
student participation in school government as a means of
teaching democratic values not only to the students but to
their parents as well. Government policy specified that
school principals should abandon the former hierarchical
prefectorial system of student government and lead
students (and indirectly, the nation) to tolerance for
diversity in opinions (Majak, 1979).
The government of Jordan has promoted participa
tion in student government as a way to improve the educa
tional achievements of disadvantaged North African and
Middle Eastern immigrants now living in Jordan. The
government instituted a boarding school project and a
special activities program for these immigrants. The
program included auxiliary lessons, cultural enrichment,
student government, and voluntary activities. The
23
government reported that longitudinal evaluation of the
program demonstrated that these immigrants had higher
levels of educational attainment and were more likely to
enter higher education programs when they finished high
school.
A historical example of promoting student govern
ment participation as a way to instill democratic values
through education can be seen in Hawaii in the 1930s and
until World War II. Japanese American students in
Hawaiian high schools were encouraged to participate in
extracurricular activities such as student government,
sport, and assemblies. Despite many facts which would
work against such participation (lack of transportation
and a heavy load of homework), the Japanese American
students participated in student government in Hawaii
public schools at a very high rate.
Thus, there is a long history and wide range of
examples of the benefits of student government participa
tion in many countries. The successes demonstrated in
these countries can also apply in the nation on which this
study is focused— -Thailand. Participation in student
government can be a valid tool to teach democratic values
to Thai students.
While the theory and principles of student social
ization through participation in student government are
24
deemed to be valid for all levels of the educational sys
tem, this study is limited to the study of activities of
student government at the local campuses of high schools.
Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to digress briefly to point
out the great value of such participation in higher educa
tion.
In higher education, activities of student govern
ment are extended from campus issues and applied to con
temporary economic, political, and social situations.
University and college students directly experience par
ticipatory skills that will quickly be useful in the real
political world. Internationally, students have shown a
great capacity to be effective participants in the poli
tical process; this is especially true of students in
higher education. In the United States, university and
college students played a key role in the 1960s civil
rights movement, which led to the enactment of the civil
Rights Act of 1964 (Berkin, 1992, p. 765). In South
Korea, Thailand, and Burma, demonstrations in which
students actively participated contributed directly to the
overthrow of authoritarian governments.
The strength and effect of student activism in
national politics has been particularly clear in Thailand.
For example, in 1973 university and college students led
bloody demonstrations (Valenti & Gulik, 1977, p. 266) in
25
opposition to the regime of Prime Hinister Thanom. In
November 1971, Thanom had carried out a coup against his
own government, which was administered under a parlia
mentary democratic system. The coup destroyed democratic
rule; the 1968 constitution was invalidated, and political
parties were prohibited (Valenti & Gulik, 1977, p. 265).
Executive and legislative authority were controlled by the
National Executive Council, which was in fact a military
junta. The council triumvirate consisted of Thanom,
Marshal Praphat, and Colonel Narong (Thanom's son).
Critics of Thanom feared that he would attempt to
overthrow the monarchy under the guise of democracy but in
reality turn to republicanism. In addition to its politi
cal problems, this military government was confronted by
economic problems, chiefly its negative trade balance with
Japan.
Thanom tried to cool the ardor of the opposition
by announcing an interim constitution. That constitution
provided for the appointment of a legislative assembly,
two-thirds of the members of which came from the military
and police. This led to the dissatisfaction of students,
laborers, and citizens, which led to the demonstrations in
June 1973 calling for a more democratic constitution.
In early October, 11 university students were arrested
for distributing an antigovernment paper. The university
26
students, laborers, and citizens led another demonstra
tion, this one demanding the overthrow of military con
trol. More than 250,000 demonstrators assembled in front
of the ironically named Democracy Memorial Place (Seekins,
1989, p. 43). The bloody demonstration occurred when
Thanom and Narong ordered troops to fire on the opposition
and took control of Thammasat University. King Bhumibol
tried to stop the bloodshed by convincing Thanom, Praphat,
and Narong to leave the country, and appointed Sanya as
interim Prime Minister.
This concerted and continuing opposition to an
unjust government might have taken place with the leader
ship of students. The students might have been motivated
to take action and might have understood how to organize
and act in concert, had they gained valuable experience in
decision making and a sense of their own personal and
political efficacy through their experiences in student
government at the high school level.
27
CHAPTER 3
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THAI EDUCATION AS SEEN
IN FOUR THAI STUDENT GOVERNMENTS
The selection of four Thai high schools as the
sample for this research is based on a review of Thai
educational development, especially in Nakhonratsima
province. A review of this historical development sets
the stage for the study of the four schools, which were
established since the 1950s and which reflect the trends
in educational theory in Thailand.
Before the mid-eighteenth century, Thai education
was provided exclusively by Buddhist monks. Children
learned both the Thai language and Buddhist scriptures
from the monks. The first movement from religious educa
tion to modern secular education began during the reign of
King Mongut (1851-1868). Mongut perceived a threat from
western imperialism, especially from England, and he
believed that English learning and an understanding of the
current political situations in Western countries would
help Thailand to become more independent, and particularly
more free from Western imperialism. Mongut hired an
English woman to teach his children and the royal off
spring .
28
King Mongut's concerns about Western imperialism
were passed on to his son, King Chulalongkorn (1868*1910).
But Chulalongkorn also shared his father's belief that a
Westernized educational system would help Thai bureaucrats
to understand the West and better resist Western colonial
ist pressures. Chulalongkorn first implemented his
beliefs by establishing the King's school for his children
and for the children of noblemen. Later he established
the Suan Kularb school, the first public school in
Thailand; the primary purpose of this school was to pro
vide a modern education for bureaucrats, but it was also
open to the general public.
This attempt to provide modern or Westernized
education to the masses initially achieved only partial
success. It was delimited to the city of Bangkok because
of the shortage of available educational funds. At the
same time, private schools led by some of the many
missionaries in Bangkok were established with the King's
blessing.
Public education was slowly expanded to the rural
areas by Prince Damrong, King Chulalongkorn's brother, who
controlled the Ministry of Interior. Damrong set up the
Ministry of Public Instruction (later the Ministry of
Education) to administer the Thai educational system.
29
After the coup d'etat of 1932, educational
development was a key part of the plan of the new Thai
government. The government aimed to provide all levels of
education to all people in Thailand. Elementary and
secondary education were greatly expanded, although the
local programs, particularly in the rural areas, were
significantly restricted by the limits to public subsidy.
The current Thai educational system consists of 6
years in elementary education, 6 years in secondary educa
tion, and 4 to 6 years in higher education. The first 4
years of elementary education are compulsory for all Thai
children. Elementary education, secondary education, and
higher education are highly regarded by the government and
the people, and their administration, instruction, and
curriculum have been significantly improved. Much assist
ance in these areas has been provided by many Western
countries. Even though all levels of education are highly
regarded by the people and the government, the continuing
lack of adequate financial resources is a serious concern
and poses significant limitations on the Thai educational
system.
S c h o o lin g in Nakhonratsima Province
Thai educational administration is centralized.
The Ministry of Education in Bangkok is responsible for
30
all levels of education in each province, except that
higher education is controlled directly by the Office of
the Prime Minister* The Undersecretary of state in the
Ministry of Education is a professional administrator who
is responsible to implement educational policies set down
by the government. The Undersecretary supervises the pro*
vincial schools through ministry inspectors, and regional
and provincial education officers. The administration
pattern is hierarchical: In each province, province
education officers must cooperate with the provincial
governor, who is an officer of the Ministry of Interior.
A serious problem for provincial education and
administration is the limited financial assistance pro*
vided by the national government. Nakhonratsima is no
exception. The province does not have enough public
schools (particularly secondary schools) to serve the
large number of students in the province. Particularly in
the suburban areas of the province, the province education
office cannot provide enough secondary public schools for
poor students. The province education office proposed the
establishment of at least one new secondary school; the
proposal was approved by the Ministry of Education but its
implementation was delayed because of the shortage of
education funds. The shortage can be primarily attributed
to the national government's educational policy which
31
tends to emphasize the development of elementary and
higher education programs rather than secondary education
programs. The government's first objective is to provide
compulsory elementary education for all Thai children.
Its second objective is to provide adequate higher educa
tion programs in recognition of the rapid growth of the
economic sector and the resulting increased need for more
skilled technicians. Thus, secondary education is placed
third in priority of funding and expansion.
One solution to the problem of limited public
secondary schools— and the focus of much government
activity in expanding secondary education— has been to
establish what has been termed the "comprehensive" school.
Comprehensive schools provide many kinds of vocational
skills and guide students in career choices. The compre
hensive school program is now established in Nakhonratsima
province; for example, Suranaree Wittaya school is a com
prehensive girls' school, which offers a curriculum empha
sizing vocational skills. (This "vocational" approach to
secondary education is a reflection of the heavy influence
of Western countries over the past 15 years.)
However, the establishment of these comprehensive
schools did not entirely meet the needs of poor students
living in suburban areas and unable to attend the public
schools in the province. In some cases, local communities
32
have taken action to set up traditional public secondary
schools in suburban areas. For instance, in Nakhonratsima
province, many wealthy persons and businessmen have
donated land and money to establish and maintain these
schools, with only limited subsidies from the national
government. Boonlua Wittaya and Chokechai Samukkee school
are examples of the suburban public schools created
primarily to provide educational opportunities to poor
students in suburban areas.
In addition to the public schools described above,
there are private schools, most of which were established
by missionaries. These schools do not receive subsidies
from the government, but are funded by rather high tuition
paid by the families. As a result, only students from
affluent families can attend these schools. Affluent
parents send their children to private schools because
they believe that their children will obtain a better
education than in public schools. They also think that
their children will learn moral values in these schools.
Saint Mary Wittaya and Assumption school are examples of
these private schools.
When missionaries set up these schools in
Thailand, their aim was to instruct students about morals
and religion, especially as defined by the Catholic
church. However, they were forced to shift their focus
33
from morals and religion to academic subjects because of
the importance of university entrance examinations,
students understood (and still understand) that passing
the university entrance examination is the crucial path in
climbing the social and economic ladders. If students
pass the entrance examination, they have the opportunity
to attend medical school or law school. As doctors and
lawyers, they can earn high incomes and obtain a high
social status.
Private schools tend to be located in the rural
areas of the provinces rather than in suburban areas. The
quality of academic instruction in these private schools
clearly surpasses that in the public schools, chiefly
because the private schools have large budgets to hire
more qualified instructors and to provide necessary
instructional material and equipment.
The two suburban public secondary schools, Boonlua
Wittaya and Chokechai Samukkee, and the two private
secondary schools, Saint Mary Wittaya and Assumption,
given as examples in this section are typical secondary
schools in Nakhonratsima province. They comprise the
sample for the present study.
In the context of the historical and current
development of the Thai educational system in general, the
educational administrative system in Nakhonratsima
34
province in particular, and the characteristics of their
public and private secondary schools, the remainder of
this chapter contains (a) a brief overview of the general
aspects of student government as seen in democratic
countries such as the United States of America, (b) a
description of the student government systems in the four
Thai secondary schools in this sample, and (c) comparison
of the general aspects of student governments in Thailand
and the United States.
General Aspects of Student Government
The general aspects of student government are
summarized in terms of (a) the extent of authority granted
to the student government, (b) the structural design types
of student government, and (c) the structural elements of
student government.
Extent of Authority
The extent of authority held by student govern
ments differs in terms of three areas of decision making
which takes place in schools. In the first are, partici
pants have complete authority, and can make decisions
without receiving the approval of school administrators.
For example, they have full power to handle student
government publicity and the management of suggestion
35
boxes and to determine the agenda for student government
meetings.
In the second are, participants have no authority.
They cannot intervene in the regulation of homework, the
recruitment of school instructors, the management of
grades, the length of school vacation, the salary of
instructors, or the expulsion of students.
In the third are, authority is shared by student
government participants and school administrators. For
example, authority is shared on matters of school morale
and pride, general welfare, social events, and extracurri
cular activities.
Structural Design Types of
Student Government
The structural design of student government can be
categorized into four types. The first type consists only
of the school officers. In this type, the leader and vice
leader of each home room are appointed or elected as mem
bers of student government to serve as liaisons between
students and teachers.
The second type is called a multicouncil, which
consists of a lower council and an upper council. The
lower council consists of representatives from the fresh
man and sophomore classes, while the upper council con
sists of junior and senior representatives. Each council
36
has its own executive committee. However, the committees
of both levels must cooperate in the decision-making pro
cess. A requirement of school development is cooperation
by everyone in school. This type of government has a
shortcoming because both students and representatives of
each level may address only the concerns of their respect
ive levels, dividing the school into factions and making
the decision-making process more difficult.
The third type of student government structure is
the school club format. Club presidents are appointed as
student government representatives. This type of struc
ture also has a limitation: The representatives may be
concerned primarily with the interests of their respective
clubs, rather than addressing the interests of the entire
student body.
The fourth type of student government structure is
the modified student government. This type of student
government imitates the authority structure of national
political institutions. There are executive, legislative,
and judicial branches, and the members of these three
branches are selected by the student body.
Elements of Student Government
Elements of student government vary from country
to country, but some aspects are essentially universal.
37
Each student government body consists of a president,
vice-president, secretary, treasurer, various committees,
general members, and faculty advisors. The student
government members can be selected either by election or
appointment. Election guidelines and procedures are
usually regulated by a student government election
committee (McKown, 1952). Guidelines cover nomination
procedures and limitations on campaign expenditures, and
limit such things as the size and number of posters.
Regarding nominations to office, eligible representatives
are usually selected from the whole student body. The
representatives have equal opportunity to be nominated,
regardless of their grades, gender, or faculty approval.
These representatives may be nominated by class members or
may nominate themselves by collecting a petition of
student signatures. The size of student government bodies
varies from school to school.
Committees are the cornerstone of student govern
ment. There are several types of committees, such as a
constitution committee, an election committee, and a
publicity committee. Each committee consists of the
student government participants who are considered to be
most expert on those specific issues. Each committee,
therefore, considers the particular issues which come
before the student government.
36
Student government advisors are generally instruc
tors appointed by the school principal. Advisors are the
coordinators between the school administration and student
government. They inform the student government about the
main policies of school administrators, oversee student
government meetings, and generally control the climate of
the decision-making process.
Four Thai Student Governments
student governments in four schools in the
Nakhonratsima province of Thailand— Saint Mary wittaya
School, Assumption School, Boonlua Wittayanusorn School,
and Chokechai Samukkee School— were selected as the sample
for this study. Maps of Thailand and Nakhonratsima
province of Thailand are shown in Figures 1 and 2,
respectively. Their student governments are described
below.
Saint Marv Wittava School
Saint Mary Wittaya School is one of the elite
private schools in Nakhonratsima province. The school was
established in 1956 and administered by the Sisters of
Saint Paul de Chartes from Bangkok. In 1989 the school
was selected by the Thai Board of Education as the best
private school in Thailand. In 1994, it is in a
transition period from an all-girls' school to a
39
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Aussumption School
nr Hary Schoo
Tho Map of Nakhonratsima Province
and
Four high schools
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\ Chokechai Samukkee School.
Figure 2.
Nakhonratsima Province
coeducational school. Female and male students can now
enroll only from grades 1 through 9, whereas students in
grades 10 to 12 must be female. There are 168 instructors
and 3,930 students at the school. Most of the students
come from the middle class and upper class families.
Occupations of the fathers of its students (Table 1)
reflect the socioeconomic class of the students in this
school.
Saint Mary Wittaya School's administrators
instituted a student government program in 1982. The
structure consists of one advisor, one president, two
vice-presidents, one secretary, one treasurer, one public
relations officer, eight general members, and nine senate
members. The Saint Mary Wittaya student government is of
the multicouncil type; there are both senate and repre
sentative councils. The representative council members
are chosen by election, but the senate members are chosen
by appointment.
Student government elections are held each June.
There are three steps in the electoral procedure. First,
an advisor to the student government selects 60 students
from grade 12 to participate in a leadership training
program, which consists primarily of lectures about
student government. After the training, these students
choose three students to be leaders of three parties.
42
Table 1
Occupations of Father» of Students at Saint Mary Wlttava
Father's Occupation
n
%
Representative or Cabinet 16 0.41
Business owner 758 19.28
Government official 1,327 33.77
Physician 375 9.54
Teacher 634 16.13
Services 260 6.62
Private company employee 520 13.23
Laborer 40 10.02
Unemployed 0 0.00
Source: The student records of Saint Mary Wattaya
School, 1993.
Each party leader must create her party symbol and
platform.
For the second step, students from grades 7 to 12
are divided into six "provinces," with each grade equal to
a "province." In each province (grade level) each party
leader nominates candidates who are chosen from the
student body of her province. The actual number of
43
representative* of each province is determined by the
total number of students in the province.
The election process may be illustrated by con
sidering the 1992 student government. As seen in Table 2,
the ratio of representatives to population was 1:100 in
the 1992 election. The population of the first province
(grade 7) was 311 students, so this province could have
only 3 representatives. The second province (grade 8) had
335 students, and thus also had 3 representatives. The
numbers of representatives of the third, fourth, fifth,
and sixth provinces were determined using this ratio.
This electoral procedure is quite acceptable and
popular because it imitates the real national election
procedure in Thailand. After the student government
election, the leader of the party which gains the highest
number of votes is appointed as the student government's
president. The other two party leaders who received fewer
votes are appointed as the vice-presidents. The rest of
the elected candidates are appointed as secretary,
treasurer, and general members. The members of the senate
are not elected,* they are instead selected from grades 11
and 12 by the school principal.
The general meeting of the student government is
held once each month. If there is an emergency task, an
emergency meeting may be called. The authority of this
44
Table 2
Student Representation at Saint Marv Wattava^ by Grade
Province or
Grade Level
Number of
Students
Number of
Representatives
7 311 3
8 335 3
9 407 4
10 173 2
11 182 2
12 136 2
Source: Student bulletin of Saint Mary Wittaya
School, 1992, p. 14.
student government includes coordination of various school
extracurricular activities and leading the student body in
religious and school ceremonies.
Based on the information in the student bulletin
of Saint Mary school, there are no committees to consider
specific issues. The entire student government membership
considers each issue together, but the final decision must
be approved by the school principal.
45
Assumption School
Assumption School is an elite private Catholic
school in Nakhonratsima province. Father Columbet
established the Assumption School in Bangkok in 1899.
In 1902 the Honfort Brothers of Saint Gabriel took over
the administration of Assumption School. These brothers
founded a second branch of Assumption School in
Nakhonratsima province in 1966. During its first 15
years, the Assumption School offered instruction in grades
7 through 12 only. However, in 1981 the school expanded
to include grades 1 to 12. The school was a school for
boys when it was established. However, since 1983, female
students have been able to attend grades 10 to 12. The
school has 2,500 students. Similar to students at Saint
Mary Wittaya School, most students come from middle class
and wealthy families. The student records concerning
fathers' occupations reflect the socioeconomic class of
students at Assumption School (see Table 3).
A student government was initially authorized by
Assumption administrators in 1988. The structure of
student government consists of one president, two vice-
presidents, one advisor, one secretary, one assistant
secretary, one treasurer, one treasurer's assistant, and
12 members. All students in grades 7 to 12 are allowed to
vote in the student government elections. The elections
46
Table 3
Occupations of Fathers of Student* at Assumption School
Father's Occupation
n
%
Representative or Cabinet 12 0.48
Business owner 438 17.52
Government official 949 37.96
Physician 240 9.60
Teacher 301 12.04
Services 140 5.60
Private company employee 400 16.00
Laborer 20 0.80
Unemployed 0 0.00
Source? The student records of Assumption School,
1993»
are held each June. The electoral procedure of Assumption
student government is different from that of Saint Mary
Wittaya School. The student government advisor requires
12 candidates in each election. Each eligible candidate
must be endorsed by at least 30 students' signatures.
Moreover, these candidates must be in grade 12. Each
candidate can campaign individually. After the election,
the candidate who received the highest number of votes is
47
appointed as the president. Candidates who obtained the
second and third most votes are appointed as vice*
presidents. The other nine candidates are seated as
general members. The advisor requires that the student
government have 45 members, so the other 33 members are
appointed by the president, who selects them from grades
7 to 12.
Based on the bulletin of Assumption School, there
are no committees to consider specific issues, but the
entire student government membership must discuss issues
together. The school principal retains final power to
approve all decisions. As with Saint Mary School, there
is no student court at Assumption School.
Boonlua Wlttavanusorn School
Boonlua Wittayanusorn School is a coeducational
public high school in the suburban area of Nakhonratsima
province. The school was established in 1978 by the Board
of Education. The purpose of this school is not only to
provide education for students from a low socioeconomic
status, but also to prevent the overflow of students into
the urban area. Admission is open for students from
grades 7 to 12. There are 156 instructors and 2,652
students. Due to the poverty of most of the students, the
school provides part-time jobs to students. Moreover, the
48
school has set up a foundation which receives subsidies
from the wealthy businessmen in the province.
The school administrators instituted student
government activities in 1990. The structure of student
government consists of an advisor, a president, 2 vice*
presidents, a treasurer, a secretary, 7 members, 64 head
students from each homeroom, and 6 representatives from
each grade level. The total number of student government
members is 85. The president, vice-presidents, treasurer,
secretary, general members, and representatives from each
grade level are selected by election each February.
The student elections are organized through four
school parties. Each party leader must be a grade 12
student. Each party nominates a four-candidate slate to
run for office. The highest vote-getter of the winning
party is appointed as president. The remaining three
candidates of the winning party are appointed as vice-
presidents and treasurer. The secretary and the other
seven members of student government are appointed by the
president from the losing parties.
Concerning the administration of Boonlua student
government, the elected student government members convene
weekly but the head students of each homeroom and repre
sentatives from each grade level do not join in the weekly
meeting; they meet once a month. The authority of this
49
student government generally is concerned with the
coordination of other extracurricular activities, religi
ous ceremonies, school events, and social events. As with
the private school, decisions of the student government at
Boonlua are subject to approval by the principal.
Chokechai Samukkee School
Chokechai Samukkee School is a public coeduca
tional high school in a suburban area of Nakhonratsima
province. It was established in 1962 through a coordin
ated effort between the Board of Education and local
residents. Like Boonlua Wittayanusorn School, the aim of
Chokechai Samukkee School is to provide educational oppor
tunities for poor students. The school currently has
2,331 students and 180 instructors.
Student government was instituted in the school in
1980. The student government consists of a president, 2
vice-presidents, a secretary, 3 extracurricular activities
officers, 12 appointed members, and 12 elected members.
Concerning the electoral procedure, each candidate
nominates himself. The candidate who receives the highest
number of votes is appointed as the president. The
president selects students from grades 7 to 12 to serve as
the 2 vice-presidents, 1 secretary, 3 extracurricular
activities officers, and 12 general members. Twelve
SO
additional general members are elected through a rather
unique method. The entire student body is divided into
six groups, with each group consisting of equal represen
tation from grades 7 to 12. Each group has a general
meeting at which candidates are nominated. A vote is
taken and one student is elected to represent that group.
Next, the entire student body is divided again into six
groups, this time by grade level. Each group meets and
elects its group representative. In this manner, the
student body has selected six "vertical" representatives
and six "horizontal" representatives.
According to the Chokechai Samukkee School
bulletin, its student government authority is similar to
that of Boonlua Wittayanusorn School. The student govern
ment convenes weekly. There are no specific committees to
consider individual issues. Final decisions are approved
by the principal.
Comparison of Thai and American
Student Government Structure
Having described the structures of four Thai
student governments, it will be helpful to study the
similarities and differences of these student government
structures and those of the United states. The comparison
is done in terms of the structure and function of
51
committees, election procedures and candidate eligibility
guidelines, and types of student government.
Committees
Committees are considered to be an important
element of American student government activities. It is
felt that, by serving on various committees, participants
will learn how to express and share opinions and how to
make decisions on issues, and that that experience pre
pares the participants for civic citizenship in a repre
sentative democracy. In contrast, the four Thai schools
in this sample have no committee structure in their
student governments. Each student government participant
takes part in meetings of the general governmental body to
consider every issue that comes before the student govern
ment. In these meetings, each participant is supposed to
have an equal right to express ideas on the issues.
Generally speaking, direct participation in
relatively large groups such as the general government
body meetings should be a good way to express ideas. This
kind of meeting also supports the participatory democracy
ideal which stresses the direct participation of
individuals. However, this direct participation may not
be as effective in the case of large groups which may have
too many participants and limited time for meeting.
52
Boolua School is an example of this ineffactivanass. The
meeting time of the student government is only 30 minutes;
there are 85 participants. So it is not possible to allow
each member to express his or her ideas on the issues.
The tendency is to give the advantage and stronger voice
to the student government officers such as president and
vice-president rather than to general student government
members.
Election Procedures and Candidate
Eligibility
Regarding election guidelines of student govern
ments, the Thai student government advisors and principals
generally provide the election guidelines because there
are no election committees in the four Thai schools.
In contrast, in the United States, election guidelines
usually are formulated by student election committees.
Nith regard to becoming a candidate for student govern
ment, the criteria are similar in the United States and
Thailand. Student government candidates generally must
have a grade point average not lower than 2.00, reflecting
the position that students can take more responsibility in
student government works activities without affecting
their educational achievements.
53
Type of Government
In terns of the types of student government, both
in the United States and Thailand, the types of student
government vary depending upon the considerations of
student government and the principal. In the case of the
four Thai schools in this sample, there are no examples of
the tripartite government style of executive, legislative,
and judicial branches which are so popular in the United
States, and there are no student committees, which are
prevalent in the United States. The multicouncil student
government is seen only at Saint Mary school, but even in
this case the upper council members are appointed by
student government advisors rather than elected.
54
CHAPTER 4
DECISION-MAKING CLIMATE OF STUDENT
GOVERNMENTS IN FOUR THAI SCHOOLS
The decision-making climate of student governments
in the four Thai schools in this sample were determined
based on interviews with advisors at these schools to gain
their opinions about student government climate. (The
determination of the decision-making climates in these
four student governments is not based solely on the inter
views with faculty advisors. Empirical tests were also
applied, and results are reported in Chapter 7.) The
following excerpts from the interviews with student
government advisors at the four Thai schools regarding
their attitudes about student government climate in their
schools (translated and paraphrased, and thus not direct
quotes) show that the student government climate of the
private schools is more "open" than that of the public
schools.
Chokechai Samukkee School
Interviewer: How long have you been teaching in
this school?
Advisor: I have been teaching in this school for
5 years.
55
Interviewer: What ie your attitude about the
decision-making climate of student government?
Advisor: I understand that practicing participa
tory skills in student government may be successful if the
student government climate is open. However, when student
government participants are urged to express their ideas
toward school affairs freely, they often propose ideas
which are against school regulations. Dress order is one
of the main school policies. In Thailand, each school
requires students to wear a uniform and not to have long
hair. It is the regulation of Ministry of Education.
One recent example is the student government of
Ratchima School, a public school in Nakhonratsima
Province. The student government participants at this
school, as the representatives of all students, proposed
that they wanted to wear baggy pants and have long hair.
That proposal is against the school regulation. The
school principal did not agree with their demand. Conse
quently, the student government participants and many
students walked out. The school principal and advisors
decided that the openness of the student government
climate should be reduced.
56
Saint Marv Wittava School
Interviewer: How long hava you baan a student
government advisor?
Advisor: I hava been a student government advisor
for 3 years.
Interviewer: Do you think that the student
government climate should be open?
Advisor: Yes, I think that the student government
climate should be open.
Interviewer: Are you afraid that, when the
student government climate is open, the participants will
propose ideas which are against the school regulations?
Advisor: No, I am not afraid on this point.
Students should have chances to propose their ideas, even
though the ideas may be opposed to the school regulations.
This is the best way for students to practice
participatory skills which help them to become democratic
citizens in adulthood.
Boonlua Wittavanusorn School
Interview: How long have you been a student
government advisor?
An adviser: I was appointed by the school princi-
pal in January, 1994.
Interview: Have you ever practiced administrative
or supervisory experience in any organization?
57
Advisor: No, I have never practiced such skills.
I graduated from a teacher's college last year and became
a new instructor in this school. The principal selected
me to be student government advisor because other instruc
tors had overloads and were unwilling to take the job.
Interviewer: Do you allow student government
participants to share their opinions in student government
decisions?
Advisor: Yes, I do it occasionally. Normally, I
tend to restrict the student government decision-making
climate. I think that student government participants are
too young to have maturity in making critical decisions.
Moreover, when they have a chance to present their own
ideas, they overact their roles as students. For example,
they proposed to me and the school principal to allow them
to participate in the school administration. They wanted
to consider what the school holidays should be. They
proposed that the school principal provide new rest rooms.
It is very hard to respond to such demands in a poor
educational institution such as Boonlua.
Interviewer: Do you take student government
participants to communicate with student government from
other schools?
Advisor: Yes, I do, but very little. The school
does not have enough budget. Sometimes, when I want to
58
take student government participants to join other student
government meetings, I have to sponsor it myself.
Interviewer: Do you think Boonlua'* student
government does an effective job?
Advisor: In my opinion, the student government
does a good job.
A second student government advisor in Boonlua
wittayanusorn school was also interviewed.
Interviewer: How long have you been a student
government advisor in this school?
Advisor: I have been a student government advisor
for 2 years.
Interviewer: Who selected you to be a student
government advisor?
Advisor: The school principal chose me for this
duty.
Interviewer: Have you ever had administrative or
supervisory training?
Advisor: Yes, I was a treasurer in a student
government when I attended grade 10.
Interviewer: To talk about student government
decision-making process in Boonlua school, do you urge
student government participants to express their own ideas
freely?
59
Advisor: I do not want to opan tha studant
government decision-making climate widely. If they can
express their opinions widely, they tend to strongly
believe in their ideas. When I gave suggestions, they
often seriously criticized or distorted my advice. This
made me frustrated because they did not respect and accept
my advice. I tended to suggest advice which the school
principal approved.
Interviewer: When you felt upset with the student
government participants, which method did you use to
express your feelings?
Advisor: I was not smiling and speaking loudly.
interviewer: Don't you think that the closed
student government climate will obstruct the students'
opportunities to practice participatory skills, which is
the crucial aim of student government activities?
Advisor: It might obstruct the participatory
skills of student government participants. However, I had
no choice. One reason results from the school principal's
personality. He likes to monitor and check the perform
ance of each student government advisor. If he perceives
that I cannot control the student government, I may be in
trouble.
Interviewer: Do you think Boonlua's student
government does an effective job?
60
Advisor: I think they do a good job. The Boonlua
school principal must provide more financial support for
student government. Now, we do not even have a permanent
place for meeting.
Assumption School
Interviewer: Is this your first place where you
begin your career?
Advisor: No, it is not. I used to teach in
another private school.
Interviewer: How long have you been responsible
for student government administration?
Advisor: I have been responsible for this duty
more than 3 years.
Interviewer: Have you had administrative experi
ence?
Advisor: Yes, I have. When I taught in the old
school, I was a student government advisor.
Interviewer: In the student government decision
making process, do you permit student government partici
pants to discuss ideas which may be contradictory to
yours?
Advisor: The main policy of Assumption school is
to promote and instill democratic values in students.
Moreover, we want to compete with other private schools.
61
such as Saint Mary School, in promoting democratic learn*
ing in school. Saint Mary School received the prize as
the best school in Nakhonratsima province in providing
learning for democracy. This year, Assumption School
wants to win this competition. In the student government
decision-making process, I initially allow the student
government participants an equal chance to express their
own opinions. If there is strong controversy, I try to
compromise. Later, I suggest the best way to obtain a
good solution.
Interviewer: Do you feel angry when student
government participants criticize your advice?
Advisor: Sometimes I feel upset about this.
However, I realize that I have a duty as student govern
ment advisor. I cannot be a dictator to order student
government participants to obey and agree with my
suggestions.
62
CHAPTER S
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The theme of this research is to study the
expectation that participation in an open student govern*
roent climate contributes to the development of a sense of
personal efficacy in students, and that, further, this
locus of control expands to application in the general
political arena. This expectation is based on the theory
of participatory democracy, which is reviewed and dis
cussed in this chapter. The theory of personal and poli
tical efficacy is also reviewed. The chapter concludes
with a brief application of these theories to open climate
in student government, particularly in the Thai student
governments which comprise the sample for this study.
Theory of Participatory Democracy
Rousseau, a classical political theorist, is a
cornerstone of participatory democracy theory. In The
Social Contract. Rousseau discussed the direct participa
tion of individuals in the political decision-making pro
cess. He delineated three functions of the participation
role in such a society.
63
The first function of the participation role is to
educate individuals to learn and practice participatory
skills. To participate in the political decision-making
process, individuals must be independent or have a sense
of freedom. They must not be dependent upon anyone else
for their political participation in their voting or shar
ing their opinions. Rousseau stressed that individuals
will be equally independent to each other when society is
quite small, or they will be peasant proprietors who
provide economic equality and economic independence.
Rousseau contended that rich people "buy" others to
support their ideas, while poor people "sell themselves"
(their support) for money. This is the basis of
Rousseau's political equality and political independence
theory.
In addition to independent participation, indivi
duals must be interdependent on other people. This is not
paradoxical. Each citizen is essentially powerless alone;
he must cooperate with others in making public policy.
When individuals attempt to obtain cooperation from
others, such attempts force them to address the wider
concept of public good. If the narrow concept of one's
person concerns is addressed, it fails to draw followers.
The policies imply that benefits and burdens are equally
64
shared. Each one is equally subject to lavr, which is a
collective decision of individuals.
Concerning the second function of participation,
the participation of individuals in the political
decision-making process is a very important aspect of
democracy. When individuals articulate the public
interest, it ensures that the interests of rulers do not
prevail over individuals' interests. The rulers cannot
claim that they know the needs of the citizens best.
Lindsay (1922) strongly supported this idea of
Rousseau. Lindsay adds to Rousseau's idea by comparing
participation in political decision-making processes to
pinching shoes. He posited that "Only . . . the ordinary
man can tell whether the shoes pinch and where; and with
out that knowledge the wisest statesman cannot make good
laws" (1922, p. 276). So, the political articulation of
individuals provides information regarding the needs of
individuals.
The third function of participation is to develop
in the people a sense of freedom and sense of belonging in
the community. In terms of the sense of freedom, their
sense of being their own master increases when they have
chances to exercise control over the life course through
participation in the political decision-making process.
65
Concerning the sense of belonging, this sense attaches
individuals to their society.
With regard to the third function of participa
tion, Rousseau links participation in the decision-making
process and the development of psychological characteris
tics of people, especially the sense of political effi
cacy. Participation in the political decision-making
process educates people about participatory skills, which
contributes to the development of their sense of political
efficacy.
J. S. Mill is a proponent of Rousseau's idea.
Mill also agreed with Rousseau that one function of parti
cipation is educative. Individuals learn democracy or
participatory skills through participation in the politi
cal decision-making process. Mill expanded the scope of
participation from the small peasant property society of
his own time to the large scale of modern society. He
argued that participation in national government is not
fully successful unless the individuals have prepared for
their participation at the local level. After reviewing
de Tocquevilie's writing, Mill agreed that individuals
should learn how to participate in the decision-making
process of local political institutions:
It is at local level where the real educa
tive effect of participation occurs, where
not only do the issues dealt with directly
66
affect the individual and his evade [sic]
life but where he also stands a good
chance of, himself, being elected to serve
on a local body. It is by participation
at the local level that the individual
learns democracy. (Mill, 1910, pp. 347-
348)
In addition to the consideration of participation
in local government authority structures, Mill expanded
the educative function of participation to nongovernmental
authority structures such as industry. As with the local
political institutions, Mill expected that workers in the
work place could also learn democratic participatory
skills, which would help workers to develop their sense of
political efficacy.
Mill also agreed with Rousseau's idea concerning
the general will. He mentioned that if each worker is
interested in only his own interest, responsible public
action will not be developed.
The man never thinks of any collective
interest, of any object to be pursued
jointly with others, but only in competi
tion with them, and in some measure at
their expense. (Mill, 1919, p. 217)
The private money-getting occupation of
most individuals uses few of their facul
ties and tends to fasten his attention and
interest exclusively upon himself, and
upon his family as an appendage of him
self; making him indifferent to the pub
lic, and in his inordinate regard for his
personal comforts, selfish and cowardly.
(Mill, 1963, p. 230)
67
Campbell (1962) followed the idea of Mill that
there is a linkage between participation in nongovern
mental authority structures and a sense of personal and
political efficacy. When individuals join in nongovern
mental authority structures, their sense of personal
efficacy is developed. Such feeling has a spillover
effect in the political arenas which contributes a sense
of political efficacy and leads to further political
participation.
It is our assumption that people begin at
an early age to develop a sense of their
own capacity to manage the world around
them. We think that some people develop
a self-confident, positive attitude with
which they meet the problems of everyday
life while others see themselves as char
acteristically giving way in the face of
environmental pressure, unable to manage
the conflicting forces which they
encounter. We expect to find this trait
related to a variety of other psychologi
cal characteristics, among them specific-
ally, political involvement. (Campbell,
1962, p. 12)
The purpose of the present study is to examine the
relationship between participation in student government
and a sense of personal and political efficacy. The
following section provides a review of the theoretical
framework related to personal and political efficacy.
68
Sense of Personal and
Political Efficacy
The sense of political efficacy is closely related
to the sense of personal efficacy. Before discussing the
sense of political efficacy, the sense of personal
efficacy should be reviewed.
The sense of personal efficacy (sometimes termed
ego strength, self-confidence, sense of effectiveness, or
sense of competence) refers to people's attitudes about
their capacity to control their environment.
Nan has always sought in some way to control, or
at least influence, his natural environment. At various
points in history, however, social forces have had con
siderable influence on the entire matter of man's control
of his environment. For example, during the Dark Ages in
Europe, the influence of the Catholic Church was quite
strong; people were taught that their environment was
controlled not by them but by the divine right of God, as
interpreted by the Church.
This divine belief began to be undermined in the
Renaissance Era. Humanism emphasized and glorified
humanity's capacity to control the natural environment.
Later, humanism was accepted and reflected in the concept
of modernization propounded by many contemporary modern
ization theorists. Srinivas pointed out:
69
Humanism is an important value of modern
ization. Humanism is concerned with an
individual's capacity to influence the
world. The principles of reason are
stressed, modern humanity can think
rationally with less reliance on influence
of religion. (Srinivas, 1966, p. 48)
Inkeles elaborated details of psychological
modernity. He suggested that the modern individual tends
to change and has an "inner readiness" for modernization
more than has the traditional individual. The modern
individual also has a greater sense of personal efficacy,
believing that human beings can learn to control the
natural environment to succeed in their pursuits.
The development of a sense of personal efficacy
can be explained not only in terms of philosophy, but also
in terms of psychology. The sense of personal efficacy,
stemming from the need for personal control, is developed
in childhood. Unlike other animal species, the human
child is born into the world without capacity to take care
of himself. His survival depends upon his parents or
custodians for a quite long period. The child is born in
hunger and thirst; initially, he does not know how to
respond to such hunger and thirst needs in a way which
will achieve physiological comfort. The only way in which
he can express these needs is crying. He does not know
the connection between his crying and obtaining food.
However, when his parents initially feed him, he begins to
70
learn the relationship between crying and the feeding
response. Thus, the child has obtained his first experi
ence of being the locus of causality. He is an initiator
of action in satisfying his biological needs. Feeding is
the first social encounter in which the child learns to
master biological discomfort through his own actions.
Eventually, as the child is fed many times a day, he also
develops a feeling of successful reinforcement, which
relieves anxiety about future feeding situations.
Erilcson added that the child develops a successful
sense of personal efficacy when he has repeated opportuni
ties to experience mastery and arrives at the conclusion
that he is a person who can make choices. But, of course,
these choices have realistic limits which must also be
recognized.
He has the right to choose, for example,
whether to approach a visitor or to learn
some of the boundaries of self-determina
tion . . . that there are walls he cannot
climb . . . objects out of the reach, and
above all, commands enforced by powerful
adults. (Erikson, 1953, p. 108)
Maslow's model of human needs also strongly advo
cates the explanation concerning the child's sense of
personal efficacy development through biological satisfac
tion. Haslow explained that human needs can be categor
ized hierarchically as physiological, safety, love, self
esteem, and self-actualization. Physiological needs refer
71
to the body's needs for food, water, and sleep. Thasa
naeds provida anargy for human action. Whan humans ara
confrontad with caloric deprivation, it may laad tham to
decrease their interest in the surrounding environment*
In terms of safety needs, Haslow explains that there are
two kinds of safety needs. The first need is bodily
safety; people need to feel secure from physical attack by
others. The second safety need concerns psychological
security; people need a safe, predictable world on which
they can rely and in which unexpected things do not occur.
Maslow believed that, when both physiological and safety
needs are met, the needs for love, self-esteem, and self-
actualization can be addressed. The theory of participa
tory democracy can apply the ideas of Maslow regarding
self-actualization to explain the development of a sense
of political efficacy. When self-actualization is
developed, people have a more positive attitude toward
their capacity to act in politics and the community. They
reduce their feelings of mistrust and increase their poli
tical legitimacy through this sense of political efficacy.
The works of Neo-Freudian theorists and psycho
logical development theorists also confirm that each human
has a need to control the forces and external environment
which impact and shape his life. In terms of Neo-Freudian
theorists, Erikson mentioned that Id and Ego are not
72
sufficient to explain the human instinct, contending that
a third important instinct is the instinct to master the
surrounding environment. He noted that children practice
to master when they play children's games.
Piaget, a developmental psychologist, suggested
that a child practices to master the external environment
in six stages. He observed that, by the fourth month,
children whom he observed "centered on a result produced
in the external environment . . . rediscovering the
movement which by chance exercised an advantageous action
upon things" (Piaget, 1952, p. 181). By the end of the
ninth month, the child's rate of physical growth has
increased. He can keep his eyes on the slow movement of
an object in space. He can use a repertoire of actions to
interact with the object. Piaget reported such an
observation of child behavior:
Laurant, by chance, strikes the chain
while sucking his fingers. He grasps it
and slowly displaces it while looking at
the rattles. He then begins to swing it
very gently, which produces a slight move
ment of the hanging rattles and an as-yet-
faint sound inside it. Laurant then
definitely increases by degree his own
movements. He strikes the chain more and
more vigorously and laughs uproariously at
the result obtained. (Piaget, 1952, p.
185)
This observation implies that Laurant was testing his
mastery of the external environment and experienced
73
intrinsic reward (evidenced by his laughing) for being the
master or the locus of causality.
People not only have a sense of personal efficacy
toward nature; the effect spills over from their sense of
personal efficacy to a sense of efficacy in their poli
tical life. People expand the scope of their sense of
personal efficacy from nature to the political system
because the political system affects their social life
space or their day-to-day living as surely as does their
natural environment.
The political system becomes salient because of
three reasons. First, the political system is the only
source by which politically efficacious people can obtain
specific benefits in terms of their needs for goods and
services. Politically efficacious people believe that
their needs will not be responded to unless they can
influence the decisional outputs of the political system.
The influence pattern does not mean that people can take
the law into their own hands, which breach of the citi
zen's responsibility can lead to the breakdown of society.
The expected behavior is an attempt to influence change,
e.g., to get the legislature to reconsider carefully an
old law and improve it or replace it with a new law.
Campbell described a sense of political efficacy
as the belief that
74
individual political action docs have, or
can have, an impact upon the political
process, i.e., that it is worthwhile to
perform one's civic duties. It is the
feeling that political and social change
is possible, and that the individual
citizen can play a part in bringing about
this change. (Campbell, Gurin, 6 Hiller,
1954, p. 187)
A sense of political efficacy is a crucial
democratic norm. This norm hinges on the idea that a
democratic society's members should not only perceive
those who are political authorities as responsive agents,
but should also feel themselves to be capable of holding
political office in that system. The idea of effective
ness in the political sphere is the expected norm of
democracy. When the democratic norm is held by most
citizens, the level of support for the democratic regime
is increased. That support is one )cind of input which
makes societal members accept the existing political
regime. Citizens who believe that they can influence the
political authorities tend to be more prone to trust those
political authorities and to be less willing to join any
protest.
In 1954 a sense of political efficacy scale was
created by the Michigan Survey Research Center under the
supervision of Angus Campbell and Warren Miller. They
measured the sense of political efficacy using the follow
ing four items (Campbell et al., 1954, pp. 187-194):
75
1. I don't think public officials cars
much what psopls liks ms think.
2. Psopls liks ms don't havs any say
about what ths govsrnmsnt doss.
3. Somstimss politics and govsrnmsnt ssam
so complicatsd that a psrson like me
can't really understand what's going
on.
4. Voting is the only way that people
like me can havs any say about how the
government runs things.
Almond and Verba also addressed ths sense of
Mcivic competenceM (i.e., political efficacy, feeling of
political confidence, sense of political effectiveness) in
their classic work, The Civic Culture (1963). According
to Almond and Verba, people feel politically efficacious
when they feel that they can exert their influence toward
political authorities' decision making (1963, pp. ISO-
181) . They also supported Campbell in the belief that
political efficacy can be measured by a single scale.
However, Balch (1974) argued that the sense of
political efficacy should be separated into two parts:
the sense of internal political efficacy and the sense of
external political efficacy. The sense of internal
political efficacy is the belief that people consider
themselves to be well qualified for participation in
political affairs. They perceive that they can understand
political events and the processes of government. In
other words, people have the image of themselves as
76
effective participants in democratic government. To
measure the sense of internal political efficacy, Balch
used items 3 and 4 from Campbell's scale:
3. Sometimes politics and government seem
so complicated that a person like me
can't really understand what's going
on.
4. Voting is the only way that people
like me can have any say about how the
government runs things. (Campbell et
al., 1954, p. 194)
Distinct from internal political efficacy,
external political efficacy implies that public officials
pay attention and respond to the interests of ordinary
people. This is the image of government and political
system responsiveness. Items 1 and 2 from the Campbell
scale were used to measure the sense of externa) political
efficacy:
1. I don't think public officials care
much what people like me think.
2. People like me don't have any say
about what the government does.
(Campbell et al., 1954, p. 194)
The work of Hayes and Clive (1993) also strongly
supported Balch's argument. Hayes and Clive studied
people's sense of political efficacy in the United States,
West Germany, Great Britain, and Australia. They also
believed that the sense of political efficacy should be
divided into internal and external political efficacy.
77
By using factor analysis, his research findings revealed
two distinguishing dimensions of political efficacy among
people of all four countries studied.
The use of the two categories of political
efficacy— external and internal efficacy— can Keep an
accurate focus on the purpose of efficacy research. For
example, if a researcher wants to study one's feeling
toward responsibility of government, he should choose
external political efficacy. Conversely, if he needs to
know the image of one's capacity toward politics, the
internal political efficacy should be selected. The
present study is an example of this dictum. Because the
study focuses on the student's sense of his capacity to
participate in politics, which is based on his general
sense of personal efficacy, the category of internal
political efficacy is most appropriate.
Application of the Theories
to This Study
Based on the theories reviewed in this chapter,
three informal hypotheses are generated for study. First,
there may be a relationship between participation in an
open student government climate and a sense of personal
and political efficacy. Second, there may be a relation
ship between student government membership in general and
a sense of personal and political efficacy. Third,
78
control variables such as type of school, gander, ags, and
level of education nay influence the relationship between
participation in an open student government climate and a
sense of personal and political efficacy.
The Relationships between Participation
in an Open Student Government Climate
and Sense of Personal and
Political Efficacy
Based on participatory theory, participation in an
open student government climate provides a chance for par
ticipants to practice participatory skills, as well as to
participate in family, church, and work place decision
making activities. As a result, participants develop
their sense of personal efficacy. They feel more
self-confident, learning that they are able to gain
control over the social environment. This self-confidence
motivates them to enter the political arena, thereby
enhancing their sense of political efficacy.
The Relationship between Thai Student
Government Membership and Students'
Sense of Personal and Political
EffigftCY
Both student government participants and nonpar
ticipants can develop their sense of personal and poli
tical efficacy, but the degree of the sense of personal
and political efficacy achieved is likely to be different.
The student government participants will have a greater
79
sense of personal and political efficacy than will
nonparticipants.
student government participants play two roles
simultaneously. First, they are involved in nongovern
mental extracurricular programs. Second, they are
involved in student government activities. Both of these
roles provide student government participants a chance to
practice democratic skills and procedures. Compared to
the student government participants, nonparticipants do
not have any chance to join the student government
decision-making process, and they may only develop their
sense of political efficacy through participation in other
kinds of school extracurricular activities, which may be
limited in its effect.
The Relationship between Student Government
Membership and Sense of Personal and
Political Efficacy. Controlling
for the Type of School
Private school participants tend to have a higher
sense of personal and political efficacy than public
school participants. Two explanations can be offered.
First, this tendency may result from private school
participants having been offered more opportunities for
participation in student government decisions. In private
schools, student government activities are more readily
available than in public schools, owing to the larger
60
budgets available to the former. Private student govern
ment participants have more opportunities to participate
in decisions of student government than do public school
participants. This helps them to develop a higher sense
of personal and political efficacy, in contrast to public
school participants.
Second, private school participants tend to have a
higher sense of personal and political efficacy than
public school participants because the student government
climate in private schools is more open than in public
schools. Student government advisors in private schools
support the open student government climate, perhaps
because they may have less prejudice regarding students
from upper and middle classes.
Even though no empirical study shows the influence
of social class on student government advisors' arrange
ments regarding the student government decision-making
climate, research about the influence of class toward a
classroom climate may be analogous to student government
climate. With regard to classroom climate, principals and
instructors may determine the classroom climate and the
educational purpose of the student experience depending on
the social class of the students.
Research by Anyon (1980) illustrated the relation
between students' social class and educational purpose and
81
budgets available to the former. Private student govern*
ment participants have more opportunities to participate
in decisions of student government than do public school
participants. This helps them to develop a higher sense
of personal and political efficacy, in contrast to public
school participants.
Second, private school participants tend to have a
higher sense of personal and political efficacy than
public school participants because the student government
climate in private schools is more open than in public
schools. Student government advisors in private schools
support the open student government climate, perhaps
because they may have less prejudice regarding students
from upper and middle classes.
Even though no empirical study shows the influence
of social class on student government advisors' arrange
ments regarding the student government decision-making
climate, research about the influence of class toward a
classroom climate may be analogous to student government
climate. With regard to classroom climate, principals and
instructors may determine the classroom climate and the
educational purpose of the student experience depending on
the social class of the students.
Research by Anyon (1960) illustrated the relation
between students' social class and educational purpose and
81
ths classroom climate. Anyon conducted her study to
identify differences in social class related to the design
of the school's educational purpose and the classroom
climate in a working-class school, a middle-class school,
and an executive elite school in New Jersey.
Host students in the working-class school came
from families in which the parents were blue collar
workers holding unskilled and semi-skilled jobs. Less
than one-third of the students in this school came from
families in which the parents were skilled workers.
Students in the middle-class school came from families in
which the parents were well-paid skilled workers, includ
ing construction workers and white collar workers such as
policeman, small shop owners, and personnel directors.
Students in the executive elite, or professional, school
came from families in which the parents were physicians,
lawyers, engineers, politicians, directors of multi
national corporations, etc.
The working-class school set forth as its educa
tional purpose to prepare students to become industrial
workers. The schools did not seem to value creativity and
analytical thinking. Fifth grade students in the research
sample were observed by Anyon (1980, p. 88) to be learning
skills of resistance. Students were constrained in their
effectiveness. The classroom climate was rated as closed.
82
Teachers gave students little opportunity to participate
in classroom discussions or to make decisions (p. 73).
Students were told to do what the teachers told them to
do, with no explanations of the reasoning behind their
instructions. This closed classroom climate was found
across most subject areas, including social studies,
science, language arts, and mathematics. For example,
Anyon observed that, even though there was a social
studies textbook, the teacher wrote his/her instructions
on the blackboard and told the students to write them in
their notebooks, giving little explanation for the reason
to do so. The subject content was judged by Anyon to be
obsolete because the teacher did not apply it to contempo
rary social and political issues. Rote work assignments
were given, without linking them to larger contexts.
Another example was seen in mathematics classes, when
double-digit division was introduced simply by the teacher
lecturing on the meaning of the terms "remainder" and
"division" and instructing the students to write the
definitions in their notebooks without discussion.
Students were not invited or challenged to think through
concepts.
In contrast to the working-class school, the
educational aim of the middle-elass sohool was to train
students for bureaucratic jobs in the future (p. 88).
83
Such jobs required accurate knowledge, ways to get correct
information, and ways to identify the correct procedure
(p. 77). The teaching style did not stress creative or
critical analysis. Across subjects the emphasis was on
where to obtain accurate information. For example,
mathematics teachers showed students several ways to do
two-digit division, then asked the students to be sure
that they understood the "right" procedure for division.
In a social studies period, the teacher asked the students
to answer questions by finding the "right*1 answer in the
textbook. The teachers were observed by Anyon to be
avoiding discussion of controversial topics.
The educational purpose in the professional
schools was to prepare students to be artists, editors,
lawyers, etc. The teaching style emphasized creativity
and open expression of ideas (Anyon, 1980, p. 89).
Students were urged to create good designs which fit
empirically tested reality. Unique ideas were encouraged.
For example, in a social studies period, the teachers not
only allowed the students to express their own ideas
regarding social and political issues, but guided the
discussion to directly address contemporary social and
political issues. In a language arts class, students were
asked to write a creative story. In a social studies
period, students were urged to make a comparative study of
84
Greek and American elections. The classroom climate was
clearly very open, obviously, the educational purpose of
the executive elite or professional school was to develop
analytical and intellectual capacities in the students.
The school was preparing students to be social leaders who
could analyze social and political situations and control
these situations (p. 89). Teachers were much more apt to
ask students "why" than "what" or "how" (p. 85).
The Relationship between Student Government
Membership and Sense of Personal and
Political Efficacy. Controlling
for Gender
In terms of gender differences in Thailand, it was
expected that male student government participants would
have a higher level of personal and political efficacy
than female participants. This expectation is based on
the general valuation of the male in Thai society as being
superior to the female, as reflected in religious prac
tices and law.
The origin of the attribution of inferiority to
the female can be traced from the precepts of Theravada
Buddhism regarding gender differences. According to
Buddhist precepts, women are classified as second-class
citizens. Buddhist people believe that being born a woman
means that the person did not gain enough merit from her
previous life. Thai people often say, "If women want to
85
receive the good merit as man [sic], they must reborn to
be a man in future lifeM (Esterik, 1982, p. 27). The
status can be improved by completing more "merit actions."
Ironically, women are prohibited from being monks, which
constitutes the most exalted merit-making action! How
ever, women can redeem merit by having a son who becomes a
monk or, in a lesser sense, they earn merit by feeding a
monk.
Even though women can redeem their merit, they are
still generally viewed as inferior. Women are seen as
lacking in "patience," which in Thai refers to endurance
of suffering and overcoming worldly demands--the strongest
characteristics of the monk. Buddhist precepts do not
allow women even to touch the body of a monk.
There are many examples of stereotyped attitudes
of inferiority of women. For instance, it is believed
that women's clothes should not be washed with men's
clothes, and that women's clothes should not be hung where
a man may pass, because this would result in bad luck for
the man (Thitsa, 1980, p. 17).
Buddhism not only assigns women an inferior moral
status, but also gives them less opportunity to receive an
adequate education that might help them to improve their
social status. This stems in part from the fact that,
historically, schools were held in the monasteries and
86
administered by monks, and only male children were per
mitted to attend.
In addition to the influence of religious beliefs,
secular laws support the dominance of the male role.
Before King Mongut's reign (1851-1865), when women
married, they were considered to be the property of their
husbands and could be bought and sold. They could even be
killed by their husbands if they were found to be
adulterous.
In contrast to the restrictions placed on women,
the law endorsed polygamy for men, allowing them three
wives. The first one was the principal wife, whose
parents allowed her to marry a single man. The second was
a minor wife, who was allowed to marry a married man. The
third was a slave wife, who accepted service to the man
because of the debts of her parents. This law was not
changed until the 1935 enactment of the Civil Law which,
among other things, restricted the Thai man to one legal
wife.
Despite current constitutional provisions for the
equality of genders, the belief in the inferiority of
women has not been completely erased. Family socializa
tion still often supports the inferior role of women,
expressing the belief that the suitable role of women is
in the household, raising children, cleaning house,
87
preparing food, and most of all, obeying and accepting
their husband's and/or father's decisions.
In the political sphere, the number of women who
participate in political affairs is still quite low. The
first female parliamentary representative entered the
lower house in 1949. Only nine women served in the lower
house from 1979 through 1983, while only three women were
appointed to the upper house (Rangson, 1982, p. 8).
A considerable body of research on this topic
supports the prevalence of gender-role differences. For
example, the work of Campbell (1961), Almond and Verba
(1963), Milbrath (1965), and Abramson (1987) has implied
that males tend to be more interested in politics and to
have a greater sense of political efficacy than females.
The Relationship between student Government
Membership and Sense of Personal and
Political Efficacy. Controlling
for Aoe and Educational Level
Apart from gender differences, differences of age
and level of education related to the topic of this study
are also interesting. Age and the number of years of
schooling may be related to political efficacy. In the
case of Thai students, student government participants who
are better educated and older are reported to be more
likely to feel politically efficacious than those who are
less educated and younger. It is logical to assume that
88
those who are younger and have lower educational
attainment will have weaker analytical skills. They are
not as likely either to understand complicated political
phenomena nor to understand the connections among them.
Those with weaker analytical skills may be more apt to be
discouraged and to have a lower sense of political
efficacy.
Campbell's research revealed that better-educated
people have a higher sense of political efficacy than do
less-educated people because better-educated people have
stronger analytical skills. Campbell also linked the
sense of political efficacy to political participation.
He reported that the sense of political efficacy is a
predictor of voter turnout. That is, people who feel more
politically efficacious are more likely to vote in
national elections (Campbell, 1961).
Almond and Verba (1963) also examined the
relationship between level of education and sense of
political efficacy. Their study showed a relationship
between level of education and sense of political
efficacy. Better-educated persons not only learned
political skills within school, but also tended to be
members of voluntary associations, which is one kind of
nonpolitical participation which later may affect a
heightened sense of political efficacy. Less-educated
89
people were reported to have fewer political skills within
school and less participation in associations and organ
izations. This lack of participation was shown to dis
courage people from developing their sense of political
efficacy (Almond & Verba, 1963, pp. 248-249).
Dennis (1973) presented data demonstrating that
students in grade 3 had less sense of political efficacy
than did those in grade 8. Dennis also pointed out that
the sense of political efficacy was initially developed
when children attended grade 3. However, this does not
mean that children develop a high sense of political
efficacy at grade 3. The high sense of political efficacy
is developed only as children attend higher grades later
(Dennis, 1973, pp. 95-96).
Summary
The purpose of this research was to examine
whether participation in student government has a positive
relationship with the sense of personal and political
efficacy in students. This relationship is based on the
theory of participatory democracy. The theory hinges on
the assertion that there is a linkage between the nature
of social institutions and the structure of the individual
personality. A democratic personality is developed in a
society where participatory modes of behavior are per-
90
mitted. The 'theorists of participatory democracy believe
that the prevailing modes of political participation at
the national level such as national elections and politi
cal campaigns are insufficient for true and direct demo
cracy. They posit that a democracy must create local
political and social institutions which permit individuals
to exercise direct participation in the decisions of local
political institutions and in all areas of social decision
making of nongovernmental authority structures. These
nongovernmental authority structures include family,
schools, churches, and work places.
Participation in such structures is the crucial
requirement of the participatory theory of democracy. It
educates individuals about self-government and participa
tory skills. Such skills contribute to the development of
a sense of personal efficacy. These participants are more
likely to feel self-confident about their ability to con
trol their direct environment. Their self-confidence also
covers the political sphere, which is one kind of environ
ment. Political awareness and interest are increased.
As a result, there is a spillover effect on the sense of
political efficacy. A person develops his sense of
political efficacy and this later leads to political
participation at the community, regional, and national
levels.
91
Applying the theory of participatory democracy to
the study of participation in Thai student government, the
following expectations seem reasonable. It is reasonable
to expect that government participation contributes to the
participants' sense of personal and political efficacy.
When student government membership is considered, student
government participants tend to have a greater sense of
personal and political efficacy than nonparticipants,
because participants experience participatory skills by
joining student government and other school extracurricu
lar activities, while nonparticipants have only the chance
to learn democratic skills by joining other extracurricu
lar groups in their decision-making activities but do not
have the chance to participate in student government.
Applying the theory of participatory democracy to
the study of participation in Thai student government, it
further seems reasonable to expect that student government
participants in private schools will tend to feel more
politically competent than participants in public schools,
for two reasons. First, student government advisors may
feel prejudiced toward student government participants in
public schools, who are likely to come from poor families
and have limited social status. Second, student govern
ment participants in private schools may have more
92
opportunities to join extracurricular activities than do
public school participants.
Applying the theory of participatory democracy to
the study of participation in Thai student government, it
further seems reasonable to expect that female student
government participants will tend to feel less politically
efficacious than males, chiefly because of the dominant
role of males in Thai society. Concerning the level of
education and the age of the student, it seems reasonable
to expect that older student government participants who
have more years of schooling will have higher political
efficacy than younger participants who have less educa
tional attainment, based chiefly on the fact that analyti
cal skills generally tend to improve with each year of
education.
93
CHAPTER 6
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
This chapter deals with the review of literature
in four clusters. The first cluster is concerned with the
relationships between family, school, work place, and
church participation and sense of personal and political
efficacy. These relationships are reviewed in two ways:
(a) cross-national studies of family, school, and work
place participation in decision making and its relation
ship to sense of political efficacy in five countries; and
(b) case studies of the individual relationships between
family, school, work place, and church to sense of politi
cal efficacy. The second cluster emphasizes the effect of
demographic variables such as gender, age, level of educa
tion, and other variables on the relationship between
family, school, work place, and church participation and
several political orientations. The third cluster deals
with the impact of extracurricular activities on social
and political orientations. The fourth cluster stresses
Thai research concerning management and the problems of
Thai student government. After reviewing all four
clusters of the literature review, the application of the
review to the study is discussed.
94
Relationships between Family. School. Work
Place, and Church Participation
and Sense of Personal and
Political Efficacy
Relationships between family, school, work place,
and church participation and sense of personal and politi
cal efficacy are reviewed in two ways: (a) a review of
two cross-national studies (Almond f c Verba [1963] and
Langton [1969] of family, school, and work place partici
pation in decision making and its relationship to sense of
political efficacy in five countries, in terms of their
research purpose, their theoretical framework, and their
research findings); and (b) a review of several case
studies of the individual relationships between participa
tion in decision making in the family, school, work place,
and church and sense of personal and political efficacy.
Researchers in political socialization have
studied the relationships between participation in various
modes of nonpolitical authority decision making and the
sense of political efficacy in two ways: cross-national
studies and case studies. Each method provides further
understanding of political socialization. In cross
national studies, the research findings indicate which
modes of nongovernmental participation have the greatest
influence in developing a sense of political efficacy in
each surveyed country and determines which countries dis
play the highest degree of a sense of political efficacy.
95
Case studies provide more detailed and individualized data
for each of the elements of participation and its
relationship to a sense of political efficacy.
Cross-national Studies
Cross-national studies were conducted by Almond
and Verba (1963) and Langton (1969) and examined the
relationships between participation in decision making in
the family, school, and work place in five countries
(United States, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and
Mexico). Their studies are reviewed in this section,
first in terms of the research purposes and theoretical
frameworks of the studies, and then in terms of the
findings related to participation in family, school, and
church. These two studies are excellent examples of
cross-national research.
Research aims. Almond and Verba's research
examined the development of individual political orienta
tion through family, school, and work place participation
in nonpolitical authority decisions. In The civic C u l t u r e
(Almond & Verba, 1963), Almond and Verba assumed that the
United States and Great Britain had more political stabil
ity than Germany, Italy, and Mexico because of their
higher sense of subjective competence, which is an import
ant factor in political stability. They further assumed
96
that a feeling of subjective competence was transmitted to
individuals through the socializing process in the family,
school, and work place. Their major purpose was to test
their assumptions by comparing the levels of subjective
competence among people in five countries: the United
States, England, Germany, Italy, and Mexico. The second
aim of the study was to measure the influence of indirect
political learning through participation in decision
making in the family, school, and the work place on the
eventual level of subjective competence.
This secondary aim of Almond and Verba's study
became the primary aim of Langton's research; he focused
specifically on whether or not differences in socioeco
nomic development in these five countries was a factor in
the unequal levels of the various socialization agents.
Theoretical frameworks. Almond and Verba studied
the political socialization process which transmitted the
sense of subjective competence to people. They elaborated
that the political socialization process could be achieved
either intentionally or unintentionally. As an example of
the intentional way, parents intend to teach their child
ren about political knowledge and to inform their atti
tudes toward politics. When children attend school, they
also can learn political knowledge through the civics
97
curriculum. The unintentional way, termed latent political
socialization, does not emphasize transmitting political
knowledge and political orientation to children directly.
Instead, experiences in participation in nongovernmental
structure decisions such as family and school are thought
to develop a sense of subjective competence.
Langton agreed with Almond and Verba about the
influence of indirect political learning through the
family, school, work place, and various organizational
memberships on one's sense of personal and political
confidence. They found that participation in the
decision-making process of these nongovernmental authority
structures contribute to a sense of personal and political
confidence. In turn, this feeling of political confidence
led to participation in political action (Almond & Verba,
1969; Langton, 1981).
Although Almond and Verba agreed with Langton
regarding the influence of indirect political learning,
they did not agree that a sense of political confidence
developed in childhood through early family socialization
would necessarily be stable in adulthood. This belief was
contradictory to the position of clinical psychologists
concerning a basic psychodynamic assumption that the
primacy of early learning of family socialization relates
to political orientation in childhood, and that this feel-
98
ing would continue across different situations in adult
hood (Langton, 1980, pp. 18-20). However, they found that
children raised in democratic families in which parents
allowed and urged their children to share ideas in family
discussions and in decision making were likely to display
a high level of political confidence. This feeling, in
turn, stimulated them to participate in politics in
adulthood.
Also unlike the clinical psychologists, Almond and
Verba as well as Langton accepted the premise that later
socialization in adulthood, such as in the work place,
also contributed to a sense of political confidence,
although it was admitted that this feeling could change
across the life span.
In summary, the studies by Almond and Verba (1989)
and Langton (1980) support the theory of participatory
democracy in that they believed that people can develop a
sense of subjective competence through participation in
nongovernmental structure decision making.
Research findings. The United States tended to
have the highest level of subjective competence and Mexico
had the lowest level (Almond f c Verba, 1989, p. 189) .
Other research findings of these cross-national studies
are reported in terms of the relationships between family.
99
school, and work place participation in decision making
and sense of political efficacy.
Family. To examine the influence of family
decision-making experience, Almond and Verba asked their
survey respondents (students) how much influence they
exerted in making family decisions. They found that 78%
and 69%, respectively, of American and English respondents
had some influence in family decisions, while only 48% of
Italian respondents reported that they had some influence
in family decisions (Almond and Verba, 1989, p. 275).
Almond and Verba also asked their student respond
ents whether, when they did not like the decisions made by
their parents, they felt free to complain and to express
their own opinions. The finding showed that most American
and English student respondents felt that they could
express their own opinions, while one half of the Mexican
respondents replied that they would not complain (Almond &
Verba, 1989, p. 275).
Almond and Verba also studied the relationship
between family participation and sense of subjective com
petence. The results indicated that 70% of the American
respondents who participated in family decisions had the
highest level of subjective competence, compared to 50% of
Mexican respondents (Almond 6 Verba, 1989, p. 286) .
100
Almond and Verba used level of education as a
control variable to determine the relationship between
family participation and a sense of political confidence.
They reported no relationship between these variables for
survey respondents whose educational level was lower than
primary level, and a weak relationship between the vari
ables when educational level was greater than primary
level. Langton'a results were similar to these: He
stated more generally that the relationship was strong
when respondents had a high level of education. Family
participation was shown to enhance respondents' sense of
political confidence from medium to high levels (Langton,
1980, p. 55).
School. In addition to participation in decision
making in the family, participation in the school contri
butes to a sense of personal and political efficacy.
Almond and Verba posited that participation of students in
the classroom decision-making process was analogous to
that of the family. In the open classroom climate,
instructors allow and encourage the students to partici
pate in class discussion. Students have equal chances to
freely express their opinion or to discuss controversial
issues. As a result, they learn democratic skills and
procedures and develop a sense of personal efficacy.
101
Their democratic experience and sense of personal efficacy
in the classroom spill over into the development of a
sense of political efficacy. In contrast, participation
in a closed classroom climate reduces students' sense of
personal and political efficacy.
Work plaoe. The findings regarding work place
participation and its relationship to sense of personal
and political efficacy differed between the studies of
Almond and Verba (1989) and Langton (1980). Almond and
Verba used educational level as a control variable to
study the relationship between participation in the work
place and sense of political confidence. They found a
high correlation for both high and low levels of education
(1989, p. 295). They explained this as a result of the
fact that work place participation was contemporaneous
with political action in adulthood. Modes of work place
participation were more analogous to political participa
tion than were family or school participation (1989, p.
304). The work place authority patterns tended to be more
hierarchical in authority, with formal positions of
authority, than was found in the more informal and natural
hierarchy of the family, where age differences are more
pertinent (1989, p. 304).
102
Langton's research findings supported Almond and
Verba's findings. Job participation was seen to help
less-educated respondents to enhance their sense of
political confidence from a medium level to a high level
(Langton, I960, p. 55). Langton presented two different
findings for highly educated respondents: (a) He reported
that the influence of job participation was less pro
nounced with highly educated American, German, Italian,
and Mexican respondents, where the influence of mass media
replaced the importance of job participation as highly
educated respondents received political learning through
the mass media. (b) For British respondents, Langton's
findings agreed with those of Almond and Verba that job
participation was helping in developing a sense of politi
cal confidence for both highly educated and less-educated
respondents. He explained this by pointing out that
organized labor in Great Britain intensified the structure
of job participation among workers who felt more freedom
to protest objectionable job decisions (Langton, 1980,
p. 60).
In addition to studying the strength of the
relationship between various modes of indirect political
learning and sense of political confidence, Langton con
sidered the economic and social circumstances of the five
surveyed countries. He believed that the influence of
103
participation in family, school, and work placa varied
considerably among countries, depending on their specific
economic and social situations. He categorized the five
surveyed countries into three groups based on economic and
social aspects. The United States and Great Britain were
termed modern societies, Germany and Italy were classified
as middle rank on the development scale, and Mexico was
ranked as the least developed country. Langton found that
in Mexico the family tended to have the most important
role among the five countries. This was explained by the
limited educational opportunities to learn these skills in
school, the simple nontechnical nature of most work in
Mexico, and the absence of modern work norms seen in more
developed countries; these conditions all contributed to
the primacy of the family as the chief influence in par
ticipation experiences.
The industrialization seen in Germany and Italy
increased the role of education, as children were more apt
to learn norms and symbols in the school setting which
differed from those learned in the family, reducing the
role of the family in influencing social participation.
Industrialization provided modern employment opportunities
and new work norms, and thus the work place was an equally
influential arena for influencing social participation.
104
In the United States and Great Britain, the
school's influence was overshadowed by the influence of
the mass media. Children were able to experience informal
political socialization from their parents and the media
outside of the school setting, and the school as a source
of this experience was seen to be chiefly redundant to
that of the parents.
In summary, the cross-national studies revealed
which kinds of nongovernmental participation had the
greatest influence in contributing a sense of political
efficacy in each surveyed country and which surveyed
country displayed the highest degree of a sense of
political efficacy.
Case Studies
In addition to cross-national studies, the
following subsection reviews case studies, using another
methodological tool which provided more detailed data
regarding relationships between various modes of
participation and a sense of political efficacy in
individual countries. The relationships of participation
to the sense of personal and political efficacy are
examined in terms of participation in decision making in
the family, school, church, and work place.
105
Participation in decision making in the family.
The work of Baker followed the concepts and methods of
Almond and Verba. Baker (1973) studied the effect of
family politicization on sense of political efficacy.
Baker's work differed from Almond and Verba's contribution
in its unit of analysis. Baker did a case study in
Germany, while Almond and Verba's research was cross
national. Baker's sample was 1,534 children living in
Cologne, Nest Germany and attending three elementary
schools. Baker's research results confirmed the findings
of Almond and Verba. He found that, when the relationship
between participation in family discussion and sense of
political efficacy was controlled for the father's
interest level in politics, political efficacy was facili
tated by a home environment in which the father was
interested in politics and allowed frequent political
discussion in the family. This finding was true of upper-
class families but not lower-class families. Furthermore,
Baker examined the effect of family politicization on
future political participation. His findings showed that
active future political participation was facilitated by a
home environment in which the father was interested in
politics and allowed frequent political discussion.
Research by Chaffee, McLeod, and Hackman (1973) on
political socialization provided a wider view of family
106
politicization. Almond and Verba, as well as Baker, had
implied that family politicization could be socialized in
two contrasting types of family communication along a
power continuum: authoritarian and democratic (permiss
ive) . Even though Chaffee et al. initially studied family
communication in two dimensions, as did Almond and Verba,
they posited that these two dimensions could be further
divided into four family communication types.
At the beginning of their research, Chaffee et al.
recognized two family communication types: socio-oriented
(authoritarian) and concept-oriented (democratic). In the
socio-oriented family, children are taught to have harmon
ious personalities. The expression of ideas is limited.
They should avoid controversy in argument and keep away
from problems. In contrast to the socio-oriented family,
the concept-oriented family allows children wider auto
nomy. Children are stimulated to share their ideas and to
challenge others' opinions. They also can expose all
sides of issues and join in controversial discussions with
adults.
When Chaffee et al. divided their respondents into
high and low groups comprised of equal numbers on each
dimension, they recognized four types of family communica
tion: laissez-faire, pluralistic, protective, and con
107
sensual (Chaffee et al., 1973, p. 351). These types pro*
vide for students a wider view of family politicization.
The laissez-faire family stresses low concept-
oriented and socio-oriented communication. Children can
challenge parents' views but they are not exposed to
information which is relevant to express their opinion.
The pluralistic family stresses high concept-
oriented and socio-oriented communication. In this
family, children are stimulated to share new ideas and are
exposed to controversial issues. They can make decisions
which differ from those of their parents.
The protective family is based on low concept-
oriented and high socio-oriented communication. In the
protective family, children must accept other ideas
without argument, but they are allowed to know information
in which they have an interest.
The consensual family results from the combination
of high concept-oriented and low socio-oriented communica
tion. In this family, children can express their ideas
and are exposed to controversial issues, but they are con
strained to accept the parents' ideas.
Chaffee et al. posited that the pluralistic fami
lies are more preferable than other family types because
competent political participants tend to be socialized
from this kind of family.
108
Ichilov also was interested in the case study
method for studying "The Family Politicization and
Adolescents' Citizenship Orientations" (Ichilov, 1988) in
Israel. His research examined the impact of family
politicization on Israeli adolescents' several citizenship
orientations. Family politicization was assessed based on
three aspects: parents' own involvement, discussion of
politics with parents, and parental encouragement of
adolescents to actively participate in youth and school
organizations. Considering the dependent variable in
Ichilov's work, a greater variety of citizenship orienta
tions was determined than in the work of Almond and Verba
or that of Baker. Ichilov identified these orientations:
sense of political efficacy, support of freedom of speech,
and political involvement.
Ichilov tended to examine family politicization in
wider dimensions than did Almond and Verba or Baker.
Ichilov examined family politicization in terms of the
parents' involvement, discussion of politics with parents,
and parental encouragement of adolescents, while Almond
and Verba, as well as Baker, examined only one dimension:
discussion of politics with parents.
Ichilov's research sample consisted of 73 4 Israeli
students who were 14-18 years old and in academic and
vocational schools in Tel Aviv. The findings indicated
109
that family politicization positively affected students'
sense of political efficacy and political involvement.
Concerning freedom of speech, the findings indicated that
family politicization negatively affected freedom of
speech. Ichilov explained that there were political
struggles among several groups concerning the image of
states and institutions. The members of these groups who
were politicized were not neutral; they took strong stands
on these issues, and tended not to be tolerant of the
views of other people. This lower tolerance level led to
less support for freedom of speech among younger students
who lived in politicized families (Ichilov, 1988, pp. 440-
441) .
Participation in decision making in the school.
Apart from participation in family discussions, Dykes
presented his study of faculty participation in the
decision-making process of one American college. Dykes
asked faculty members whether or not
the personal, face-to-face relations . . .
between faculty members and administrators
[contributed] to a sense of personal
involvement in decision-making that is
lacking at other levels of participation.
(Dykes, 1968, p. 30)
The results showed that faculty members thought that they
were not sufficiently involved in the faculty decision
making process; 96% called for improvement of opportuni-
110
ties for faculty to participate more fully in college
policy the decision-making processes. Nevertheless, there
was an ambivalence in the faculty members' attitude toward
participation in decision-making process. Even though
faculty members stressed that faculty should have an
active role in setting college policy concerning educa
tional aspects, they did not want to invest required time
for such participation. They ranked faculty participation
in the administrative decision-making process at the
bottom of their duty list.
Participation in decision making in the church.
Sense of political efficacy is developed not only through
participation in the decision-making processes of family
and school but also through church participation. Guth
(1988) suggested that analyses of religion should be
studied in terms of sets of constructed social organiza
tions. Furthermore, he argued that political socializa
tion scholars should trace activities within the church to
examine how those activities have developed political
orientations. Peterson (1990) agreed with Guth's formula
tion and examined the relationship between participation
in church decision-making processes and individuals' sense
of political efficacy. People were asked how efficacious
they felt when they participated in church decision-making
111
processes, and how often they claimed to participate in
church decision-making processes. The research results
indicated that church participation was highly related to
church efficacy. As predicted, church efficacy was
correlated with a higher sense of political efficacy
(Peterson, 1990, pp. 213-216).
Participation in decision making in the_work
place. In addition to participation in family, school,
and church, participation in the work place, especially in
factories, may be considered a place for participation in
the decision-making process. In democratic countries,
political democracy may be strengthened by promoting and
practicing participatory skills (democratic values) in
many sectors of society. One such sector is the economic
area. If economic democracy or work place democracy is
developed, workers are able to join the decision-making
process in their company, which can influence their lives
in many ways.
In Participation and Democratic Theory (1970),
Pateman asserted that democratic work place participation
educated workers regarding democratic values and helped
them to develop a sense of political efficacy. Findings
from her study indicated that workers' participation in
undemocratic authority structures in industry inculcated a
112
value of political apathy. She suggested that a redesign
of work place authority structures toward a more demo*
cratic stance might result in a higher sense of personal
and political efficacy and a higher degree of political
participation. However, she did not empirically investi
gate the relationship between participation in work place
decision-making processes and a sense of political effi
cacy and political participation. She did not clearly
define the aspect of the democratic authority structure or
participatory work environment.
Elden (1981) investigated the suggestions by
Pateman that a redesign of work place authority structures
in relation to democratic aspects might contribute to a
higher sense of personal and political efficacy and
increased political participation. The results of Elden's
research confirmed Pateman's suggestions. Elden found
that, when the authority structure was self-managing,
workers had a greater sense of political efficacy and
tended to participate more in politics. Elden also
explained why Pateman had not completed the empirical
research regarding the influences of participation in the
work place toward a sense of political efficacy and poli
tical participation: When Pateman wrote Participation and
Democracy Theory in 1970, it was difficult to find
113
research studies which linked participation in work place
decisions to political participation.
Many participatory theorists such as Pateman and
Elden have studied the effect of participation in
decision-making processes in nongovernmental authority
structures rather than in governmental authority struc
tures as they related to people's sense of political
efficacy. Unlike Baker and Elden, Finkel (1987) posited
that participation in the political sphere also has an
effect on political efficacy.
Finkel was interested in both conventional politi
cal participation (e.g, campaigning and voting) and uncon
ventional political participation (e.g., peaceful protest
or aggressive behaviors). The findings of Finkel's work
(1987) indicated that voting in West Germany had a minimal
effect on people's sense of political efficacy. Voting
was thus judged not to be a measurement of the sense of
political efficacy. Finkel reported that campaign
activity was the only mode of conventional political
participation which was shown to influence an individual's
sense of political efficacy, as the campaign activity
placed people in direct contact with political ideas.
Those who contributed their time and money derived not
only instrumental benefit from the winning or losing of
the election by their candidate, but they also became
114
familiar with the political system and became more con
fident of their capacity to achieve desired political
results.
Unconventional political participation such
as engaging in peaceful demonstrations and aggressive
political behavior was not shown to have an effect on the
development of a sense of political efficacy. In fact,
unconventional political participation tended to increase
the sense of political alienation and powerlessness.
There are many ways to support and develop worker
participation. These methods include shifting ownership,
collective bargaining, joint consultation, autogestion,
quality circles, codetermination, and job enlargement.
Shifting ownership was the earliest attempt to
improve worker participation. This can be accomplished
through nationalization of private companies or through
transformation of the means of production to the hands of
workers. It is expected that shifting ownership may
result in more humane and more equitable distribution of
profits. However, economic democracy through shifting
ownership shows little sign of success. An example can be
found in socialist eastern European countries in the late
1960s. The evidence revealed that employees in national
ized companies did not have more chances to participate in
company decisions and did not experience higher incomes or
115
greater job security than private sector employees
(Wilson, 1991, p. 164).
Collective bargaining is based on the meeting of
two adversarial sides who present their individual inter
ests in an attempt to reach an agreement, generally
between management and labor, the latter generally repre
sented by a union organization. The two sides meet to
discuss and bargain regarding the conditions of work.
Normally, the union leadership (the elite) have a greater
role in the bargaining process than do the line workers.
So the extent of participation in the decision-making
process is quite narrow. Union leaders are considered to
know what is in the best interest of the workers, and the
workers thus experience very limited participation in the
actual decisions made as a part of the collective
bargaining process.
Codetermination is a system whereby worker repre
sentatives are allowed to participate in the decision
making process of the company's board of directors.
Generally, countries which prefer using codetermination
enact laws to control the process. The board is divided
into two parts: (a) a supervisory board, comprised of
worker representatives who are chosen by workers, and (b)
the management board, comprised of the traditional stock
holder representatives. Membership on these boards is
116
equal in number. The supervisory board's role tends to be
less than that of the management board, meeting only four
or five times a year. The supervisory board does not have
a dominant role in the decision-making process, and poli
cies proposed by the supervisory board may be altered or
overruled by the management board, which has eventual
authority and responsibility for the welfare of the
company.
Joint consultation, autogestion, and quality
circles are efforts to realize worker participation from
the bottom up. Joint consultation emphasizes the
relationship between employers and employees. The
employers explain to the employees the reasoning behind a
regulation concerning work conditions, wages, etc. If the
employees accept the employer's policy, the company will
benefit from the cooperative manner. Generally, this
form of worker participation is found during political
and economic crises. Compared to codetermination, the
equality of worker participation may be limited. Workers
themselves can have face-to-face discussions about their
problems with employers but they are not able to make
final decisions. This type of participation presents
certain risks: Workers may think that they are joining
the decision-making process when they are not actual
involved in the final decisions.
117
Like joint-consultation, the use of autogestion or
direct expression groups is a way to support worker parti
cipation from the bottom up. Autogestion provides oppor
tunities for workers to share their opinions and to raise
questions about management and working conditions in the
company. This kind of worker participation is quite simi
lar to joint consultation, except that, where autogestion
is used, it is mandated by law that workers join the small
groups which are the heart of the autogestion concept.
Ideally, this would include about 12-15 workers from the
same work station (Wilson, 1991, p. 444). Their meetings
are held during work time and employees are paid for their
time in the meetings. Each group has a facilitator to
lead the discussion and to report the results of the
meeting to both union and management.
The works of Brown and Reich (1988) and Logue
(1981) noted that workers in such expression groups tended
to be more interested in participating in day-to-day shop
floor activities or job-centered issues than in general
management issues. Brown and Reich (1988) presented the
example of New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc., a car
manufacturer supported by a joint venture between Toyota
in Japan and General Motors in the United States. The
plant, located in Fremont, California was used to manu
facture Toyotas and Chevrolet Novas. There was a clear
118
division of duty between Toyota and GM: Toyota was
responsible for production, while GM was responsible for
marketing. In 1982 the Fremont plant was closed due to
low productivity, low quality, and high rates of absentee
ism of workers. Toyota decided to try a completely new
tack: it redesigned the plant and rehired about 80% of
the workers who had worked with GM at the plant. Within 2
years, the plant was operating at its production capacity
of 20,000 cars per month. The level of quality was com
parable to that of the imported Toyota Corolla, and the
rate of worker absenteeism was significantly reduced.
This success of Toyota resulted from the use of teams of
five to eight members which took care of day-to-day shop
floor activities. Team members rotated their work tasks.
They met periodically to discuss ways to improve their
product quality and work process. Workers were authorized
to halt the assembly line at any time to solve an
engineering problem. The teams were expected to solve
their own production problems rather than call adminis
trators or engineers immediately.
Another example is in automobile manufacturing in
Sweden (Logue, 1981). Saab changed its manufacturing
pattern from rigid job definition in the conventional
assembly line to a team approach in 1981. In the team
design, workers could join the decision-making process
119
regarding day-to-day shop floor activities. As a result,
the problems of quality were solved, annual worker turn
over was decreased, and Saab profits increased.
Quality circles are often influential in persuad
ing workers to join in efforts to improve productivity in
international competition. Membership in quality circles
is voluntary and these circles meet more frequently than
do the previously described expression groups.
Job enlargement is sometimes regarded as a method
which supports worker participation. It is an effort to
expand the scope of jobs to encompass larger job pro
cesses. Job enlargement proponents believe that, when
workers can control the job process beyond the monotonous
assembly line, they develop self-confidence and a sense of
political efficacy. Lipsitz and Blauner's contributions
support this claim.
Lipsitz (1964) studied the influence of the job
situation on the political attitudes of industry workers.
His assumption was that, when workers were confined to a
monotonous assembly line, they developed a sense of
apathy. He questioned whether job enlargement might
reduce this indifference in workers. Lipsitz studied the
political orientation of three kind of workers: assembly
line, repair and utility, and skilled maintenance workers.
He found that the assembly line workers had suppressed
120
discontent and accepted their powerlessness to change the
work situation. They lacked self-confidence to control
their work lives. Repair and utility workers had a
greater sense of autonomy in their jobs. Because they had
flexibility and versatility in their work lives (they
could not only be stand-ins for assembly-line workers, but
also had the competence to repair the machines), they had
a stronger sense of pride and more interest in their work.
The skilled workers tended to have the strongest sense of
self-confidence toward work. They believed that they had
variety in their work, they had good relationships with
other workers, and they expressed an intent to remain in
their jobs.
The research of Blauner (1964) strongly supported
the belief of Lipsitz that less work participation led to
political alienation and less political efficacy. Blauner
(1964) compared the workers' sense of political efficacy
in four different work situations, and presented the
results in his book Freedom and Alienation. He posited
that American automobile and textile industry workers felt
less politically efficacious than did workers in craft and
chemical industries. To consider the working environment
or authority structure of the automobile and textile
industries, the industries used high technology in produc
tion. Workers neither had any chance to control the
121
technique of their work or to practice varied skills.
That technique, along with the closed decision-making
climate of the authority structure, not only reduced
chances of these workers practicing democratic participa
tory skills, but also decreased a high sense of personal
and political efficacy in the workers. Consequently, the
workers tended to have a lesser degree of political parti
cipation. Blauner described the typical textile worker's
personality:
He is resigned to his lot . . . more
dependent than independent . . . he lacks
confidence in himself . . . he is humble
. . . the most prevalent feeling states
. . . seem to be fear and anxiety.
(Blauner, 1964, pp. 69-70, 80)
As a result, these workers felt less politically efficaci
ous and reported a lower level of political participation
at the national level.
Unlike the automobile and textile workers, the
printing and chemical workers had more control over their
work and more freedom from external control. As a result,
they had a higher sense of personal efficacy. This high
sense of personal efficacy led to a high sense of politi
cal efficacy and a high degree of political participation.
The work council is another form of worker parti
cipation. In the council, workers have full authority to
control the management of the company. But many studies
122
have shown that workers ars not interested in worker par
ticipation in these councils, which are at the higher
levels of the managerial decision-making process.
In the case of West Germany, the government has
attempted to support worker participation in the decision
making process in steel and mining companies since 1951.
According to German law, there must be workers' councils
in which workers join equally in the decision-making
process in these industries in terms of vacations, welfare
facilities, wage method payment, and hiring or firing of
employees. However, Daniel Kramer, an observer of German
workers' councils, reported that only 15% of the workers
surveyed were interested in attending workers' council
meetings (Kelso, 1978).
In Israel, the General Federation of Labor, an
organization which supports socialist principles,
attempted to introduce more worker participation in
factories between 1945 and 1967. The attempt was reported
to be unsuccessful allegedly because of worker apathy.
The Yugoslavian government also failed to provide
increased worker participation in factories. Even though
the government required each enterprise to set up a
workers' council, workers were indifferent and declined to
join the councils (Kolaja, 1960; Obradevic, 1970).
123
One explanation for these failures is that workers
in the capitalist systems are not interested in accepting
self-management ideas because they fear being socialized
into being passive tools of management, and thus do not
want to join the decision-making process which runs their
lives*
A country may use several types of worker partici
pation over time. For example, France used codetermina
tion to improve worker participation prior to the 1980s.
The government believed that this top-down economic demo
cratization increased workers' participation in management
board decisions concerning investment plans. However, the
workers were not interested in these policies and turned
to consideration of more materialistic goals such as
higher salary, more job security, etc. The French
socialist government tried a new way to support economic
democracy by using autogestion* The government enacted
the Auroux Laws, which required all companies with 200 or
more employees to provide direct expression groups. This
effort of the French government was not successful,
chiefly because workers proved to be indifferent to such
group discussion. The issues which were considered in the
groups that did meet were focused on shopfloor problems
rather than broader political and social issues or manage
ment plans.
124
In the case of West Germany, the government tried
to improve workplace democracy through codetermination.
However, the German concept of codetermination was differ
ent from that of France in terms of the number of worker
representatives on the boards. According to the Worker
Constitution Act, the German legislature required that the
worker representatives constitute one third of the total
dual-board membership (Mason, 1982, p. 160), with the
remaining two-thirds being stockholder representatives.
The management board passed important policies which
affected workers' lives, while the supervisory board,
composed of worker representatives, convened only five
times a year. This led to indifference on the part of
workers regarding participation. The 1976 law required
that worker representatives be selected by the union
(Mason, 1982, p. 164). Sometimes, the union chose worker
representatives who were not even employees of the
company! This exacerbated the problems and resulted in
increased indifference toward board decisions.
Effect of Demographic Variables on the
Relationship between Family. School,
Work Place, and Church Participa
tion and Political Orientation
Even though the independent and dependent
variables which these researchers used in their study were
different, the same general result was found when the
125
various relationships between variables were controlled
for gender. Males were more likely than females to feel
politically efficacious. For example, the works of Baker
(1973), Ichilov (1988), and Peterson (1990) aimed to
determine the relationship between family politicization
and sense of political efficacy, while Guth's study (1988)
aimed to examine the relationship between church partici
pation and sense of political efficacy. The scope of Sae-
yu's study was wider than that of the work of Baker,
Ichilov, and Peterson. Sae-yu examined the relationship
between various independent variables such as mass media
participation, peer group participation at school, and
classroom participation, and dependent variables such as
sense of political efficacy and political trust. All of
these studies determined the effect of gender as a con
trolled variable on the relationships between variables.
It was found that males who participated in family,
church, mass media, or peer groups at school had a higher
sense of political efficacy and political trust than did
females who participated in these activities.
In addition to gender, level of education was used
as a controlled variable in examining its influence on the
relationship between different independent and dependent
variables. Many research found similar results: better
educated people who participated in school or work place
126
had a higher sense of political competence than did less
educated people (Peterson, 1990; Sae-yu, 1980 ). When
level of education was an independent variable instead of
a controlled variable, many researchers also found that
better educated persons were more likely to feel
politically efficacious than were less educated persons.
Hayes (1993) determined the direct effects of educational
level on sense of political efficacy. He reported that
better educated persons had a higher sense of external
political efficacy than did less educated persons.
Like gender and level of education, the variable
"age" was used as a controlled variable in determining its
effect on the relationship between family politicization
and sense of political efficacy. Baker (1973) and Ichilov
(1988) found that older respondents who had family
politicization were more likely to feel politically
efficacious than younger respondents. The work of Finkel
(1987) different from that of Baker and Ichilov in terms
of independent variables. Finkel studied the effect of
age on the relationship between participation in govern
mental authority decision making (voting) and sense of
political efficacy, while Baker and Ichilov were inter
ested in participation in nongovernmental authority
decision making such as than in the family. The findings
by Finkel revealed that older people who voted felt more
127
politically efficacious than did those voters who were
younger.
Impact of Extracurricular Activities on
Social and Political Orientations
The third cluster in the review of literature
addresses the impact of participation in extracurricular
activities on social and political orientations. A
general review of the literature on this subject,
described herein, leads to the conclusion that there is a
reciprocal relationship between participation in school
extracurricular activities and social and political
orientation and future political participation.
Using extracurricular activities participation as
the independent variable, Ziblatt (1965) hypothesized that
students could learn democratic participatory skills
through school extracurricular activities, partly on the
assumption that such activities are analogous to those in
adult voluntary associations. However, Ziblatt's research
findings did not support this hypothesis. He found no
relationship between participation in extracurricular
activities and positive attitude toward politics.
Instead, the positive attitude toward politics and social
trust seemed to have been developed before the participa
tion in extracurricular activities (Ziblatt, 1965). It is
reasonable that people may develop their social trust
126
before participation in extracurricular activities, as
experiences in the family, classroom, or church may
contribute to social trust. However, the question of
whether participation in extracurricular activities has
a relationship with social trust should not be closed yet.
The work of Sonnenburg supports the idea that this ques
tion may not yet be settled (Sonnenburg, 1962).
Unlike the work of Ziblatt, Sonnenburg's work
(1962) identified a relationship between participation in
high school extracurricular activities and the development
of attitudes toward public affairs. Sonnenburg hypothe
sized that membership in many extracurricular activities
would be related to the sense of political efficacy,
satisfaction with political institutions, and a likelihood
of future political participation. Her hypothesis was
based on the theory of Arnold Rose regarding functions of
voluntary associations in a democratic society. According
to Rose, it is the function of voluntary associations to
distribute power in society and to develop the citizens'
satisfaction with the democratic process. The research
was conducted in a suburb of Lansing, Michigan, sampling
only high school students. The results supported Rose's
theory concerning the functions of voluntary associations:
Sonnenburg found that students who joined three or more
types of extracurricular activities expressed a higher
129
sense of political efficacy, were more likely to be satis-
fied with political parties, and were more likely to plan
to have future political participation than those who par
ticipated in only one or two activities.
Snyder (1970), Burback (1972), and Eyler (1978)
tested whether social and political attitudes can be
predictors, rather than outcomes, of participation in
extracurricular activities. Snyder (1970) posited that
a favorable attitude toward public affairs is related
to membership in adult social voluntary associations.
Burback (1972) argued the more the less privileged
students participated in extracurricular activities, the
more powerless they felt. Eyler (1978) found that high
school students developed a sense of integration, politi
cal interest, and political confidence which led to par
ticipation in politics.
Cuccia (1981a, 1981b) compared the sociopolitical
attitudes of participants and nonparticipants in school
extracurricular activities. He hypothesized that partici
pants in extracurricular activities would have more posi
tive sociopolitical attitudes than nonparticipants. The
sample consisted of 732 students in 9 high schools in a
western state in the United States, all of whom were mem
bers of four extracurricular activities: student govern
ment, newspaper staff, sports-related clubs, and honor
130
clubs. He termed these participants "the student elites."
He compared these student elites and other students on six
sociopolitical attitudes (dependent variables): political
attitudes, political interest, political confidence,
social attitudes, social trust, and social integration.
The findings supported the hypothesis. Student elites had
more positive sociopolitical attitudes than did non
elites. Specifically, student elites were interested in
politics and felt confident about their capacity to
influence the political process, whereas non-elites
expressed negative attitudes toward political interest and
political confidence, student elites were also interested
in school political matters and felt more confident than
non-elites about their capacity to influence the school
process. Both student elites and non-elites reported
feeling socially integrated in the school, but not trust
toward teachers and administrators.
Participants in extracurricular activities may
have different sociopolitical attitudes because of differ
ences in gender, socioeconomic status (SES), level of edu
cation, and school si2e. Jacobs and Chase (1989) examined
the relationship between school size and sociopolitical
attitudes among extracurricular activities participants.
They found that students in large schools had a stronger
sense of "not belonging" in the extracurricular activities
131
than did students in small schools. Their actual
participation was less than their reported desired parti
cipation.
In summary, the literature concerning participa
tion in family, school, college, church, industry, and
extracurricular activities demonstrates the importance of
participation in any Kind of nongovernmental authority
structures as an influence on the participant's political
orientation, especially a feeling of political competence.
The results of several studies indicate that participation
in family, school, college, and church contribute to
developing feelings of political competence. In the case
of participation in industry, even though participation
may help workers to develop their sense of political
efficacy, efforts to support more worker participation
have not been successful. Workers are still more con
cerned about their day-to-day interests than about higher
level company policy-making processes.
Thai Research Concerning Management
and the Problems of Thai
Student Government
The fourth cluster of the literature review is
concerned with the works of Thai educational researchers
on student government activities, including an effective
132
model of student government administration and the prob
lems of student government.
Rattanawong and Suttisorn's research purposes were
similar. They were interested in examining the respond
ents' attitudes toward student activities. Rattanawong's
respondents were students in five senior public schools
and five private schools in Bangkok, while Suttisorn's
respondents were public school principals, instructors,
student government advisors, and students. Rattanawong
emphasized the examination of attitudes toward student
government only, whereas Suttisorn sought to study atti
tudes toward both student government and sports clubs.
However, the research findings of Rattanawong and
Suttisorn are similar. They found that most respondents
had positive feelings about student government and sports
clubs. Rattanawong speculated that student activities
give students chances to train in participatory skills,
while Suttisorn suggested that school provides more
activities which allow students to practice participatory
skills. They agreed on the need for student discussions
and debates about contemporary social, political, and
economic issues of the country, and that students should
have chances to participate in the decisions made by the
school administration, e.g., decisions related to the
quality of instruction.
133
In addition to examining the attitudes of students
and teachers toward student activities, Rattanawong and
Suttisorn studied the problems of student government
administration. Their findings are similar. The main
problems of student government administration were limited
time, lack of instructional equipment, and limited budget.
Students did not have enough time to join the student
activities.
Chareagpum's research continued the work of
Rattanawong and Suttisorn. She added that student govern
ment participants and student government advisors display
a limited level of participation in student government
because they do not understand clearly the role of student
government.
Tubina <1986) studied the students' attitudes
toward extracurricular or student activities. Tubina
hypothesized that instructors would display different
attitudes toward extracurricular activities related to
their age and educational achievement level. He also
hypothesized that extracurricular activities participants
would have attitudes different from those of nonpartici-
pants. Responses to questionnaires by 182 instructors and
457 students showed that extracurricular activities parti
cipants had higher positive attitudes toward extracurricu
lar activities than did nonparticipants. In terms of
134
instructors' attitudes, the result showed no attitudinal
difference toward extracurricular activities between
older, well-educated instructors and younger, less-
educated instructors.
Some Thai educational researchers have been seek
ing to identify an effective student activities management
model. The works of Yimchang (1984), Vanorom (1986),
Arunratana (1990), and Panapan (1975) are good examples of
this quest. Generally, the four researchers concluded
that the study of effective student activities management
models should include four parts: types of student
activities, aims of student activities, crucial fundamen
tal factors of student activities administration, and the
problems of student activity. Even though these four
researchers agreed on the four parts of such a study,
their methodologies differed. Yimchang presented a pro
posed model of organizing the school council for small
size elementary schools in rural areas, and asked both
school administrators and teachers in small rural
elementary schools to evaluate the model. Vanorom (1988)
developed his model of student activities management by
inviting 18 Thai educational experts to evaluate his
model. Arunratana examined effective student activities
management model by asking students and student advisors
in four teaching colleges in the North of Thailand to
135
evaluate various models. Panapan's methodology was quite
similar to that of Arunratana. She distributed question
naires to 96 teachers and 320 students of private and
public schools in Bangkok, asking them to evaluate her
model.
The findings and recommendations of these four
researchers are quite similar. They agreed that student
activities should be divided into three types: cultural
and art clubs, sports clubs, and student government. The
aims of these three types of student activities are to
develop students' intellectual, moral, and participatory
skills. Concerning the fundamental factors of student
activities management, student activities participants and
advisors should have equal chances to share their opinions
in student activities decisions. According to these
researchers, student government should be able to enact
rules and to correct unfair rules which are not against
basic school policy. Moreover, student government should
have student courts to consider student offenses, with the
cooperation of the principal. Both teachers and students
need free democratic elections. Each voter should have
the right and freedom to choose the most capable candi
date. Each plan of student activities should be approved
by advisors. The president and members of the student
activities government groups should be chosen by open
136
election from among those students who have at least a
2.00 grade point average. The student activities budgets
should be strongly subsidized by school administration.
The problems common to student government groups were
poorly qualified student activities advisors and partici
pants , limited budgets, and lack of equipment, places, and
effective publicity.
A study by Arunratana (1990) identified one addi
tional student activities problem: advisors may disagree
with students concerning the range of authority of student
activities participants. This may result from the school
administration's failure to properly train and prepare
these advisors, particularly in the delicate question of
the range of authority of the student groups.
Application of the Literature
Review to the Study
The first three of the above four clusters of
literature review provided helpful insight in preparation
for the research conducted in this study.
Regarding the first cluster, several researchers
found a positive relationship between participation in
family, classroom, school, church, and workplace decision
making processes and participants' sense of personal and
political efficacy. These findings showed that it was
reasonable to expect a positive relationship between
137
student government participation in an open-climate
decision-making process and students' sense of personal
and political efficacy.
Findings reported in the studies reviewed in the
second cluster, related to the effects of demographic
variables on sense of political efficacy, generally showed
that older, well-educated, and higher SES persons tend to
have a higher sense of personal and political efficacy
than younger, less-educated, and lower SES persons, partly
because they are more likely to participate in decision
making processes in the family, classroom, church, and
work place. These findings are reasonable to apply to the
question of whether older, better-educated, and higher SES
persons have a higher sense of personal and political
efficacy when they participate in an open student
government decision-making climate.
General findings reported in the third cluster of
the literature review showed a relationship between parti
cipation in extracurricular activities and social and
political attitudes. This encouraged the speculation that
student government participation (which is one kind of
extracurricular activity) may show a relationship to sense
of personal and political efficacy.
While the contents and findings reported in the
fourth cluster of the literature review were interesting,
138
they are not directly pertinent to this research. The
Thai educational researchers reviewed herein have pre
sented and evaluated effective models of student govern
ment management, but have not studied the influence of
participation in student government on students' sense of
personal and political efficacy.
139
CHAPTER 7
METHODOLOGY
The Conceptual Framework
According to the theorists of participatory demo
cracy, most people gain skills in democratic participation
and develop their sense of political efficacy not only
through direct political participation, such as voting,
but also through participation in decision-making pro
cesses in many other social institutions, such as family,
church, work place, school, and student government. When
people have the chance to participate in the decision
making process of these social institutions, they develop
a sense of personal and political efficacy. The purpose
of the present study was to examine whether or not
participants in the decision-making process of student
government are more likely than nonparticipants to develop
a sense of personal and political efficacy. Further, the
study was designed to measure the influence of certain
demographic characteristics, i.e., gender, age, and level
of education, on their sense of personal and political
efficacy.
140
Instrumentation and Data Collection
The questionnaire consisted of two parts (see
Appendix A). The first part was designed to collect
demographic data. Respondents were asked their type of
school, gender, age, and level of education. The second
part focused on the respondent's sense of personal and
political efficacy and experience in the student govern
ment decision-making process. Statements were presented
for which the respondent indicated a level of agreement or
disagreement using a Likert-type response scale. The
questionnaire was translated from English to Thai by the
researcher. The questionnaire was pilot tested for
comprehensibility by 40 junior and senior students in
Bangkok.
After confirmation of the utility of the instru
ment, the questionnaire was used to collect the research
data. Junior and senior students in four Thai high
schools comprised the samples. In each of the four
schools, the junior and senior students were Btratifiad as
student government nonparticipants and student government
participants. Because of the significantly larger number
of nonparticipants, nonparticipant sample members were
selected by a random cluster sampling method, i.e.,
students in one classroom from each grade were chosen to
answer the questionnaires. Because the number of student
141
government participants was relatively small, each student
who was currently or formerly a member of student govern
ment was invited to answer the questionnaire.
Data collection was done in February 1994. Nine
hundred questionnaires were distributed to students in
four Thai high schools; 76 were discarded because they
were incomplete or answered incorrectly, leaving a sample
total of 824.
HeasMreroent
Measure of the student government climate was
based on the studies by Ehman. Ehman studied the influ
ence of the social studies classroom climate on students'
political orientation. He defined the classroom climate
as either "open" or "closed." He described the classroom
climate as open if students have opportunities to discuss
freely their different points of view on controversial
issues. In the open climate, the teacher conducts the
class using democratic principles, stressing equality and
respect for individual ideas; students are encouraged to
participate in the discussion. The open classroom climate
may provide students the opportunity to develop their
sense of political efficacy and political participation
for application in adulthood. Conversely, when tlie class
room climate is closed, the students' sense of political
142
efficacy ia likely to be lower. Such a lower sense of
political efficacy nay reduce the motivation of students
for political participation in adulthood.
The classroom climate work of Ehman was adapted
and applied to examine the student government climate.
The student government climate measurements in the present
study included the following items:
1. How often do the student government advisors
deal with controversial issues?
2. How often do student government advisors allow
participants to present all sides of questions?
3. In student government discussions, how fre
quently do student government advisors urge participants
to ask questions about controversial issues?
4. During student government discussion, how free
do participants feel to express their opinions?
5. In student government discussions, how often
do advisors approve and use the opinions of participants?
The multiple choice response scale included never,
seldom, occasionally, often, and always. A correlation
matrix was done to determine the validity of the student
government climate measurement. The result of the matrix
revealed that each item of the student government climate
had a positive correlation coefficient.
143
To measure the sense of personal efficacy of both
Thai student government participants and nonparticipants,
the personal efficacy scale created by Milbrath (1965) was
used. Milbrath measured the sense of personal efficacy by
asking Americans their opinion on the following items:
1. I would rather try to plan ahead to do
something than make decisions when they
come up.
2. I am the kind of person that has good
luck more than bad luck.
3. I always plan things ahead because no
one can change my plan. (Milbrath, 1965,
p. 158)
To determine the validity of the personal efficacy
items, a factor analysis based on a varimax rotation was
conducted. The rotation showed that these three items are
loaded on a sense of personal efficacy. Therefore, all
three items were used in this study.
The political efficacy scale of Campbell et al.
(1954), later modified by Balch (1974), Lane (1959), and
Abramson (1987) was used. The adapted scale as used in
the present study consists of the following items.
1. I consider myself well qualified to
participate in politics.
2. 1 feel that I could do as good a job
in public office as most other people.
3. What happens in the government happens
because of political participation by
people. There is no question that people
can make things happen in the government.
144
4. Citizens have a say in what they
think about running the government
5. It is possible to organize people
against unjust policies of the government.
6. Politics and government do not seem
too complicated for a person like me to
really understand what's going on.
7. I feel that I have a pretty good
understanding of the political issues
facing our country.
8. Voting is an effective way that people
like me can have a say in how the govern
ment runs things.
The response categories of each item were strongly
disagree, disagree, no opinion, agree, and strongly agree.
Factor analysis was done to examine the validity of these
eight items. Factor rotation showed that items 6 and 7
should be eliminated.
Both sense of personal and political efficacy
scales were shown to be reliable. Cronbach's alpha
coefficients as indicators of reliability were .4825 for
the sense of personal efficacy scale and .68 07 for the
sense of political efficacy scale (see Appendix B).
Analytical Tools
Multiple regression was chosen as the appropriate
statistical method to examine multivariate relationships
between participation in student government, sense of
personal efficacy, and sense of political efficacy. The
crosstabs analysis and scattergrams were used to examine
145
the bivariate correlations between two variables. For the
crosstabs analysis, Tau-b was used as a measure of statis
tical significance.
146
CHAPTER 8
FINDINGS
Based on the theory of participatory democracy, it
is reasonable to predict that participation in an open
student government climate has a relationship to students'
sense of personal efficacy, and that, in turn, a sense of
personal efficacy has a relationship to sense of political
efficacy.
Collected data are the responses of 824 students
in four Thai high schools to the two questionnaires
described in Chapter 7 and designed to measure the pre
dicted relationships. Multiple regression analysis was
applied to examine the relationships among these three
variables.
overall Relationships
Table 4 shows that participation in an open
student government climate and sense of personal efficacy
simultaneously predict sense of political efficacy. There
is a change of R* (R* - .4948 and adjusted R1 * .4888),
significance of £ - .0000. Thus, where participation in
an open student government climate is the first independ
ent variable in the equation, sense of personal efficacy
147
Table 4
Statistical Output of Multiple Regression Analysis of the
Relationships between Participation and Sense of Personal
Efficacy, with Sense of Political Efficacy as the
Dependent Variable
Variable B SE B Beta
z
sig £
Participation .513362 .054930 .566439 87.342 .0000
Personal
efficacy .252468 .063168 .242243 15.974 .0001
(constant) .681958 .158887 18.422 .0000
Mote: R* - .49486, adjusted R* « .48881; £ »
81.80085; Significance of £ “ .0000.
is a second independent variable which predicts sense of
political efficacy.
Crosstabs Analysis
In addition to multiple regression analysis,
crosstabs analysis was used to examine the bivariate
relationship between participation in an open student
government climate and sense of personal and political
efficacy. Tables 5 and 6 show the relationships between
participation in an open student government climate and
sense of personal and political efficacy.
148
Table 5
Relationship between Participation In an Open Student
Government Climate and Sense of Personal Efficacy
Independent Variable;
Participation (%)
Dependent Variable:
Sense of Personal Efficacy Low Medium High
11
Low personal efficacy 30.4 6.3 1.6 19
Medium personal efficacy 26.1 30.2 9.8 37
High personal efficacy 43.5 63.5 88.5 114
Totals 100.0 100.0 100.0 170
D
46 63 61 170
Note! Tau-b * .67700, Statistical significance «
. 0000.
Table 5 reveals that participation in an open
student government climate has a relationship with sense
of personal efficacy (Tau-b - .67700). This relationship
is statistically significant (p < .001). The strength of
the relationship is moderate and the direction of the
relationship is positive, that is, the higher the level of
participation in an open student government climate, the
higher the sense of personal efficacy. Table 5 shows that
30.4% of the respondents who reported a low level of
149
Table 6
Relationship between Participation in an Open Student
Government Climate and Sense of Political Efficacy
Independent Variable:
Participation (%)
Dependent Variable:
Sense of Political Efficacy Low Medium High
n
Low political efficacy 45,7 3.2 0.0 23
Medium political efficacy 47 .8 39.7 14 .8 56
High political efficacy 6.5 57.1 85.2 91
Totals 100.0 100. 0 100.0 170
n
46 63 61 170
Note: Tau-b * .60515, Statistical significance -
.0000.
participation in an open student government climate had a
low sense of personal efficacy, 30.2% of those who
reported a medium level of participation had a medium
sense of personal efficacy, and 88.5% of those who
reported a high level of participation had a high sense of
personal efficacy.
Table 6 shows a relationship between participation
in an open student government climate and sense of politi
cal efficacy (Tau-b -.60515), statistically significant at
150
E < .001. The strength of the relationship is noderate
and the direction of the relationship is positive: that
is, the more participation in an open student government
climate, the higher the sense of political efficacy.
Table 6 shows that 45.7% of participants who reported a
low level of open student government climate participation
had a low sense of political efficacy, 39.7% of those who
reported a medium level of open student government climate
participation had a medium sense of political efficacy,
and 85.2% of those who reported a high level of open
student government climate participation had a high sense
of political efficacy.
Scatterarams
Scattergrams were used to examine further the
relationships found by crosstabs analysis. Figure 3 is a
scattergram of relationships between participation in an
open student government climate and sense of personal
efficacy. Figure 3 supports the results of the crosstabs
analysis, i.e., the more participation in an open student
government climate, the higher the sense of personal
efficacy. Fourteen participants reported a low level of
participation and had a low sense of personal efficacy; 36
participants who reported a high level of participation
had a high sense of personal efficacy.
151
3
* 20 *36 *16
2 .75
2.5
Sense of
Personal 2.25
Efficacy
2
12 19 #6
• • .
1.75
1.5 .
'
1.25 r ^
1 14 4 1
• • •
7S I U 4 FT'S 272 2.6 3
Participation In an Opan Scudant Govarnaant Cllaaca
Figure 3. Relationship between Participation in an Open
Student Government climate and Sense of Personal Efficacy
152
Figure 4 is a scattergram of relationships between
participation in an open student government climate and
sense of political efficacy. Figure 4 supports the
findings of crosstabs analysis, i.e., the higher the level
of participation in an open student government climate,
the higher the sense of political efficacy. Twenty-one
participants reported a low level of participation and had
a low sense of political efficacy; 36 participants
reported a high level of participation and had a high
sense of political efficacy.
Student Government Membership
and Efficacy
Cross-tabs analysis was used to measure bivariate
relationships between student government membership and
sense of personal and political efficacy. Table 7 shows
the measurement of the relationship between student
government membership and sense of personal efficacy.
Table 7 reveals a bivariate relationship between student
government membership and sense of personal efficacy (Tau-
b « -.67000) which is statistically significant (p <
.001). The strength of the relationship is medium and the
direction of the relationship is negative. Table 7 shows
that 11.4% of the student government members had a low
sense of personal efficacy, while 26.1% of those who were
nonparticipants had a low sense of personal efficacy.
153
3
2.75
2.5
Sense of
, , 2
Political
Efficacy
1.75
1.5
1.25
1
Participation In an Opan Studtnt Govarnsant Clinata
Figure 4. Relationship between Participation in an Open
Student Government Climate and Sense of Political Efficacy
22
21
36 36
25
6 1 1.4 1.6 2.2 2.6 3
154
Table 7
Relationship between Student Government Membership and
Sense of Personal Efficacy
Dependent Variable:
Sense of Personal Efficacy
Independent Variable:
Student Government
Membership (%)
Yes No
n
Low personal efficacy 11.4 26. 1 194
Medium personal efficacy 21.7 44.4 328
High personal efficacy 66.9 29.5 302
Totals 100. 0 100. 0 824
n
166 658 824
Note: Tau-b « -.67000, Statistical significance *
. 0000.
Those participants and nonparticipants who had a medium
sense of personal efficacy were 21.7 and 44.4 percent,
respectively. Of those participants and nonparticipants
who had a high sense of personal efficacy, 66.9% were
participants, and only 29.5% were nonparticipants.
Table 8 shows the measurement of the relationship
between student government membership and sense of politi
cal efficacy (Tau-b - -.58822). This relationship is
statistically significant (p < .001). The strength of the
relationship is medium and the direction of the
155
Table 8
Relationship between Student Government Membership and
Sense of Political Efficacy
Dependent Variable:
Sense of Political Efficacy
Independent Variable:
Student Government
Membership (%)
Yes No
n
Low political efficacy 13.9 18.8 147
Medium political efficacy 33.1 63.4 472
High political efficacy 53,0 17.8 205
Totals 100.0 100.0 824
D
166 658 824
Notei Tau-b » -.58822, Statistical significance -
.0000.
relationship is negative. Table 8 shows that 13.9% of
student government participants and 18.8% of nonpartici
pants had a low sense of political efficacy. Those with a
medium sense of political efficacy were 33.1% and 63.4%,
respectively. Participants with a high sense of political
efficacy were 53% of participants, whereas nonparticipants
with a high sense of political efficacy were only 17.8% of
nonparticipants.
156
Efficacy bv Type of School
When the relationship between student government
membership and sense of personal efficacy is controlled
for the type of school, the comparison of sense of
personal efficacy between private school participants and
public school participants can be examined.
Table 9 reveals that the relationship between
student government membership and sense of personal
efficacy persists after controlling for the type of school -
(first-order partial Gamma - .50821). Participants from
the two private schools (Saint Nary School and Assumption
School) had a higher sense of personal efficacy than did
participants from the two public schools (Chokechai
Samukkee School and Boonlua School): 92.5% of
participants from private schools had a high sense of
personal efficacy, compared to 49.5% of participants from
public schools; 31.3% of participants from public schools
had a medium sense of personal efficacy, compared to 7.5%
of participants from private schools; and 19.2% percent of
participants from public schools had a low sense of
personal efficacy compared to no participants from private
schools.
Table 10 presents the relationship between student
government membership and sense of political efficacy.
Participants from the two private schools (Saint Mary
157
Table 9
Relationship between Student Government Membership and
Sense of Personal Efficacy. Controlling for the Type of
School fPrivate or Public)
Dependent Variable:
Sense of Personal Efficacy
Independent Variable:
Student Government
Membership (%)
Yes No
n
Public Schools
Low personal efficacy 19. 2 15. 5 67
Medium personal efficacy 31.3 42.4 162
High personal efficacy 49.5 42.1 179
Total 100.0 100.0 408
a
99 309 408
Private Schools
Low personal efficacy 0.0 35.5 124
Medium personal efficacy 7.5 46.1 166
High personal efficacy 92.5 18.3 126
Total 100.0 100.0 416
n
67 349 416
Note: First-Order Partial Gamma - *50821.
158
Table 10
Sense of Political Efficacv. Controllina for the Tvds Of
School
Dependent Variable:
Sense of Political Efficacy
Independent Variable:
Student Government
Membership (%)
Yes No
n
Public Schools
Low political efficacy 23.2 5.8 41
Medium political efficacy 49.5 62.5 242
High political efficacy 27.3 31.7 125
Total 100. 0 100.0 408
n
99 309 408
Private Schools
Low political efficacy 0.0 30.4 106
Medium political efficacy 9.0 64.2 230
High political efficacy 91.0 5.4 80
Total 100.0 100. 0 416
n
67 349 416
Note: First-Order Partial Gamma - .50396.
159
School and Assumption School) had a higher sense of
political efficacy than did participants from the two
public schools (Chokechai Samukkee School and Boonlua
School): 91.0% of participants from private schools had a
high sense of political efficacy, compared to 27.3% of
participants from public schools; 49.5% of participants
from public schools had a medium sense of political
efficacy, compared to 9.0% of participants from private
schools; and 23.2% percent of participants from public
schools had a low sense of political efficacy, compared to
no participants from private schools.
Controlling the gender variable while measuring
the relationship between participation in an open student
government climate and sense of personal efficacy allowed
examination of whether male participants would have a
higher sense of personal efficacy than female partici
pants.
Efficacy bv Gender
Table 11 shows that the relationship between
participation in an open student government climate and
sense of personal efficacy persists after controlling for
gender (First-Order Partial Gamma - .64306). The direc
tion of the relationship is positive, i.e., the more males
or females participate in an open student government
160
Table 11
Relationship between Participation In an Open Student
government Climate and Sense of Personal Efficacy,
Controlling for Gender
Dependent Variable:
Sense of Personal Efficacy
Independent Variable:
Participation (t)
Low Medium High
n
Male
Low personal efficacy 41.7 6.9 2.7 13
Medium personal efficacy 25.0 41.4 10.8 22
High personal efficacy 33.3 51.7 86.5 55
Totals 100.0 100.0 100.0 90
n
24 29 37 90
Female
Low personal efficacy 16.2 5.9 0.0 6
Medium personal efficacy 27.3 20.6 8.3 15
High personal efficacy 54.5 73.5 91.7 59
Totals 100. 0 100.0 100. 0 80
n
22 34 24 80
Note: First-Order Partial Gamma ■ *64306.
161
climate, the higher the sense of personal efficacy: 41.7%
of male participants who reported a low level of partici
pation had a low level of personal efficacy, compared to
18.2% of female participants. In the medium level of
personal efficacy, the percentage of male participants
decreases from 41.7% to 41.4%, while the percentage of
female participants increases from 18.2% to 20.6%. In the
high level of personal efficacy, the percentage of male
participants increases from 41.4% to 86.5%, while the
percentage of female participants increases from 20.6% to
91.7%. It is clear that female participants felt more
personally efficacious than did male participants in the
high level of personal efficacy. However, male partici
pants had low and medium levels of personal efficacy more
often than did female participants.
Table 12 shows that the relationship between
participation in an open student government climate and
sense of political efficacy persists after controlling for
gender (First-Order Partial Gamma - .85670). The direc
tion of the relationship is positive, i.e., the more the
participation of males and females in an open student
government climate, the higher the sense of political
efficacy: 54.2% of male participants who reported a low
level of participation had a low level of political
efficacy, compared to 36.4% of female participants. In
162
Table 12
Relationship between Participation in an Open Student
Government Climate and Sense of Political Efficacy.
Controlling for Gender
Independent Variable:
Participation (%)
Dependent Variable;
Sense of Political Efficacy Low Medium High
n
Low political efficacy
Male
54.2 0.0 0.0 13
Medium political efficacy 37.5 48.3 18.9 30
High political efficacy 8.3 51.7 81.1 47
Totals 100.0 100.0 100.0 90
a
24 29 37 90
Low political efficacy
Female
36.4 5.9 0.0 10
Medium political efficacy 59.1 32.4 8.3 26
High political efficacy 4.5 61.8 91.7 44
Totals 100.0 100.0 100.0 80
n
22 34 24 80
Note; First-Order Partial Gamma ■ .85670.
163
the medium level of political efficacy, the percentage of
male participants decreases from 54.2% to 48.3%, while the
percentage of female participants decreases from 36.4% to
32.4%. In the high level of political efficacy, the
percentage of male participants increases from 48.3% to
81.1%, while the percentage of female participants
increases from 32.4% to 91.7%. It is clear that female
participants felt more politically efficacious than did
male participants in the high level of political efficacy.
However, male participants had more low and medium levels
of political efficacy than did female participants.
Efficacy bv Level of Education
It was hypothesized that better-educated partici
pants would have a higher sense of personal efficacy than
less-educated participants. Table 13 shows that the
relationship between participation in an open student
government climate and sense of personal efficacy remains
after controlling for the level of education (First-Order
Partial Gamma * .57883). The direction of the relation
ship is positive. The findings reveal that the higher the
level of participation by better-educated participants in
the open student government climate, the higher the sense
of personal efficacy: 95.2% of participants from grades
11 and 12 who reported a high level of participation had a
164
Table 13
Relationship between Participation In an Open Student
Government Climate and Sense of Personal Efficacy^
Controlling for the Level of Education
Dependent Variable:
Sense of Personal Efficacy
Independent Variable:
Participation (%)
Low Medium High
D
Grades 7 and 8
Low personal efficacy 57.1 13.3 10.0 11
Medium personal efficacy 21.4 20.0 10. 0 7
High personal efficacy 21.4 66.7 80.0 21
Totals 100.0 100.0 100.0 39
n
14 15 10 39
Grades 9 and 10
Low personal efficacy 19.0 6.5 0.0 6
Medium personal efficacy 28.6 32.3 13.3 20
High personal efficacy 52.4 61.3 86.7 56
Totals 100. 0 100.0 100. 0 82
n
21 31 30 82
Grades 11 and 12
Low personal efficacy 18.2 0.0 0.0 2
Medium personal efficacy 27.3 35.3 4.8 10
High personal efficacy 54.5 64 .7 95.2 37
Totals 100. 0 100.0 100.0 49
n
11 17 21 49
Note: First-Order Partial Gamma * .57883.
165
high level of personal efficacy, while 86.7% of partici
pants from grades 7 and 8 and 80.0% of participants from
grades 9 and 10 showed this relationship. Regarding the
low sense of personal efficacy, 18.2% of participants from
grades 11 and 12 who reported a high level of participa
tion had a low sense of personal efficacy, while 57.1% of
participants from grades 7 and 8 and 19.0% of participants
from grades 9 and 10 showed this relationship.
As well as the sense of personal efficacy, better-
educated participants were expected to have a higher sense
of political efficacy than less-educated participants.
Table 14 shows that the relationship between participation
in an open student government climate and sense of poli
tical efficacy persists after controlling for the level of
education (First-Order Partial Gamma - .83696). The
direction of the relationship is positive, i.e., the more
better-educated participants join in the open student
government climate, the higher the sense of political
efficacy: 95.2% of grades 11 and 12 participants who
reported a high level of participation had a high sense of
political efficacy, while 60.0% of grades 7 and 8 partici
pants and 86.7% of grades 9 and 10 participants showed
this relationship. Regarding the low sense of political
efficacy, 18.2% of grades 11 and 12 participants who
reported a low level of participation had a low sense of
166
Table 14
Relationship between Participation in an Open Student
Government Climate and Sense of Political Efficacy,
Controlling for the Level of Education
Dependent Variable:
Sense of Political Efficacy
Independent Variable:
Participation (%)
Low Medium High
D
Grades 7 and 8
Low political efficacy 35.7 6.7 0.0 6
Medium political efficacy 64.3 20.0 40.0 16
High political efficacy 0.0 73.3 60.0 17
Totals 100. 0 100.0 100. 0 39
B
14 15 10 39
Grades 9 and 10
Low political efficacy 38.1 3.2 0.0 9
Medium political efficacy 57.1 29.0 13.3 25
High political efficacy 4.8 67.7 86.7 48
Totals 100.0 100.0 100.0 82
D
21 31 30 82
Grades 11 and 12
Low political efficacy 72.7 0.0 0.0 8
Medium political efficacy 9.1 76.5 4.8 15
High political efficacy 18.2 23.5 95.2 26
Totals 100.0 100.0 100.0 49
D
11 17 21 49
Notei First-Order Partial Gamma « .83696.
167
political efficacy, while 64.3% of grades 7 and 8 par
ticipants and 38.1% of grades 9 and 10 participants showed
this relationship.
Summary of Maior Findings Related
to the Stated Hypotheses
The major findings of the statistical analyses of
data from this study as they relate to the stated hypo
theses are as follows.
1. There were multivariate relationships among
participation in an open student government climate, sense
of personal efficacy, and sense of political efficacy.
1.1 There was a relationship between participa
tion in an open student government climate and sense of
personal efficacy.
1.2 There was a relationship between participa
tion in an open student government climate and sense of
political efficacy.
2. Student government participants had a higher
sense of personal and political efficacy than did nonpar
ticipants .
3. Student government participants from private
schools had a higher sense of personal and political
efficacy than did participants from public schools.
168
4. Age differences did not have a relationship
with sense of personal efficacy or sense of political
efficacy among student government participants.
5. Female student government participants had a
higher sense of personal and political efficacy than did
male participants.
6. Better-educated student government partici
pants had a higher sense of personal and political effi
cacy than did less-educated participants.
169
CHAPTER 9
DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS,
AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter presents a summary of the theoretical
framework of the study, a discussion of the findings of
the study based on an analysis of collected data, con
clusions drawn from the findings, implications of the
study findings, and recommendations for future research.
Summary of Theoretical Framework
Participation in an open student government
climate has a relationship to students' sense of personal
efficacy. Sense of personal efficacy, in turn, relates
to a sense of political efficacy. These two sets of
relationships strongly reinforce the theories of Mills,
Almond, and Peterson. These theorists believe that people
can practice participatory skills not only through direct
and conventional political participation such as voting
and political campaigning, but also through participating
in all areas of social decision making throughout the
nongovernmental authority structure. These structures
include family, associations, school extracurricular
activities, church, and workplace. Applying these
principles to participation in student government, when
the climate of the decision-making process in student
170
government is open, participants can freely express their
ideas. As a result, they develop a sense of personal
efficacy; that is, they feel more self-confident about
their capacity to control their environment. This
capacity spills over into the sense of political efficacy.
Discussion of the Findings
The results of the present study reveal that the
greater the participation in an open student government
climate, the higher the sense of personal and political
efficacy. This can be explained by the fact that, as
participants have more opportunities to participate in the
student government decision-making process, they have more
opportunities to practice participatory skills. Thus,
their senses of personal and political efficacy are
increased.
The study findings also showed that student
government participants had a higher sense of personal
and political efficacy than nonparticipants. The sense of
personal and political efficacy can be developed through
participation in school extracurricular activities such as
academic clubs, debate clubs, sports clubs, and student
government. Student government participants can join the
student government and other extracurricular activities,
171
thereby having more chances to practice their participa
tory skills.
Student government participants from the private
schools in this study sample had a higher sense of per
sonal and political efficacy than did participants from
the public schools. This finding can be explained in two
ways.
First, the private schools allocate more money to
support activities of their student governments than do
the public schools. Consequently, the students at these
private schools have more opportunities to participate in
various types of student government decisions than do
students at the public schools. The greater frequency of
participation in student government decisions at the
private schools enhances in these students their sense of
personal and political efficacy better than in those
students from the public schools.
Second, the decision-making climate of student
government in the private schools was shown to be much
more open than in the public schools. Student government
advisors at the private schools not only allowed but urged
students to participate actively in the decision-making
process, thus allowing their students more opportunities
to practice participatory skills than were afforded to
students in the public schools.
172
The study findings showed that age did not
correlate to the development of personal and political
efficacy. One explanation is that students may have a
higher or lower degree of sense of personal and political
efficacy depending more upon their intelligence than on
age. Abramson's research concerning intelligence as an
explanation for racial differences (black and white) in
Americans' sense of political efficacy indicated that a
low level of intelligence was correlated to a low sense of
political efficacy. Cognitive capacity was related to a
sense of political efficacy because people with limited
intelligence do not clearly understand their political
environment (Abramson, 1987).
Considering the current prevalence of the belief
in male dominance in Thai society, one would expect male
students to report an overall higher sense of personal and
political efficacy than female students. However, female
participants in this study were more likely to have a high
level of personal and political efficacy than males, which
would imply that the belief in male dominance may not be
as strongly entrenched as in the past. Thai culture is in
a transition period, and Thai people are beginning to
accept the Western culture value of gender equality.
Another explanation for this seemingly contradictory
finding is that the social and economic environment in
173
Thailand is changing tremendously. As in Western
developed countries, females now work outside the home,
instead of being homemakers. As a result, females have
more opportunities to participate in formal and informal
decision-making groups. These changes in Thai society are
reported in recent sociological research:
Hale-female relations among Thais are
becoming more egalitarian and it is true
that male-female levels of formal educa
tion are converging; the same is true for
levels of paid labor force participation.
Nationwide, more than half of all wives
are employed in the paid labor force,
providing additional economic resources
for their families. It is also the case
that the status of women in Thailand is
relatively high compared to women in other
developing countries. However, Thai cul
ture continues to emphasize patriarchal
value and to reinforce traditional gender
roles within the context of the family.
The culture emphasizes "macho" character
istics in males. A clear-cut double
standard exists with regard to sex,
whether it be premarital or extramarital
sex. (Hoffman, Demo, & Edwards, 1994,
p. 136)
Applying these dual forces of tradition and change
to the results of the present study, it is reasonable to
divide the sample's female student government participants
into two conceptual (although not actual) groups. The
first group consists of those female student government
participants who still operate under the historical and
traditional Thai belief in male dominance; these female
participants are more apt to show low and medium levels of
174
personal and political efficacy. The second group con
sists of those female student government participants who
accept and are acting out the influence of modern western
cultures concerning gender equality in the family, educa
tion, and work; these female participants are more likely
to have a high level of personal and political efficacy.
The study by Niemi and Dash (1992) supports the
above finding that the inferior role of females is gradu
ally changing. Niemi and Dash found that gender differ
ences in political efficacy among adolescents in India and
the United States were marginal. Measures to further
reduce gender inequality in India were noted.
Better-educated student government participants
were seen to have a higher sense of personal and political
efficacy than less-educated participants. As students
reach higher grade levels, they have greater access to
social and political information about the school and
society in general. Their opinions regarding student
government, school administration, and political and
social issues outside the school will be more specific.
Briefly, better-educated participants differ from less-
educated participants not only in the extent of knowledge
about student government and of social and political
information, but also in the sophistication of the
175
concepts which they use to manage the importance and
meaning of this flood of information.
Conclusions
The ways in which people can learn and practice
their participatory skills should not be limited to direct
political participation such as voting and political cam
paigning. People can also develop participatory skills
through social decision-making processes in nongovern
mental authority structures such as student government.
As a r iult, their sense of personal efficacy will be
developed. People not only develop a sense of personal
efficacy toward nature, but their sense of personal
efficacy 'pills over into their political life (sense of
politic efficacy). The findings of this study thus
strongly upport the participatory democracy concept.
This found multivariate relationships between parti
cipation a an open student government climate and sense
of both personal and political efficacy. These relation
ships were indicated by measures of multivariate
relationships, crosstabs analysis, and scattergrams.
In summary, the following conclusions can be drawn
from the results of this study.
176
1. There is a relationship between participation
in an open student government climate and a sense of
personal and political efficacy.
2. Student government participants have a higher
sense of personal and political efficacy than nonpartici
pants .
3. Participants from private schools have a
higher sense of personal and political efficacy than do
participants from public schools.
4. Female student government participants seem to
be gaining in their sense of personal and political effi
cacy more rapidly than male participants, reflecting a
possible transition in gender roles in Thailand.
5. Better-educated student government partici
pants have a higher sense of personal and political effi
cacy than do less-educated participants.
6. Age differences do not have a relationship
with sense of personal and political efficacy among
student government participants.
Implications of the Study Findings
These research findings may be useful to Thai
educational planners, school principals, instructors,
students of political socialization, and students of
comparative education. The findings that participation in
177
an open student government climate develops students'
sense of personal and political efficacy provide a clearer
picture of the significance of participation in an open
student government climate for school administrators and
instructors in Nakhonratsima and other provinces in
Thailand who are skeptical of the value of student
government.
The findings that gender and level of education of
students affect the relationship between participation in
an open student government climate and sense of personal
and political efficacy may remind the education planners
and the school principals that the effectiveness of the
development of students' sense of personal and political
efficacy through participation in student government deci
sions may depend on the openness of the climate offered to
the participants in student government.
These research findings may also add to the knowl
edge base of students of political socialization concern
ing socializing agents. It can be seen that socialization
through participation in student government is an import
ant socializing agent, along with family, classroom, work
place, and church. The students of political socializa
tion who are suspicious of the role of student government
in socialization may reexamine their conclusions after
consideration of the findings in this study.
178
These research findings may also be valuable to
students of comparative education, to be used to compare
Thai student government participation to that in other
countries.
Recommendations for Future Research
Based on the findings and conclusions of this
study, the following recommendations are made for future
research.
1. People can develop a sense of personal and
political efficacy through participation in decision
making processes from various sources, such as family,
community associations, classroom, civics curriculum,
school extracurricular activities (including student
government), church, work place, and others. The influ
ences of these various socialization agents are clearly
interrelated. It was not the purpose of the present study
to separate these agents. However, it is recommended that
future research be conducted to examine the extent and
type of influence of each of these agents in the social
ization process related to the sense of personal and
political efficacy.
2. This research was limited to the study of the
relationship between participation in student government
and sense of personal and political efficacy in secondary
179
school. It is recommended that future research be
conducted to study these questions on a wider scope,
especially at the primary level and in higher education
(colleges and universities).
3. Psychological factors such as personality may
influence attitudes of student government participants and
advisors toward the student government climate. It is
recommended that research be conducted by political
socialization researchers to examine these influences.
4. The delimitation of this study to secondary
school students resulted in a derivative delimitation, in
that direct political participation in the community was
not studied, since secondary school students have at best
a very limited role in real political participation. It
is recommended that future research be conducted to
determine the relationship between the sense of political
efficacy and political participation among university
students. This recommendation is based on informal inter*
views with 15 Thai students attending the University of
Southern California regarding their experience of partici
pation in primary and secondary student government and
their current political participation; 10 of these
students reported that their experience in student
government as children and teenagers had made them feel
180
politically competent and stimulated them to participate
in political affairs.
5. in this study, the researcher expected that
participation in student government which was one of
nongovernment authority structure would result in the
development of political efficacy. However, this study
did not examine whether there might be a mutual relation
ship between participation and political efficacy.
Political efficacy might be an independent variable which
stimulates one to take part in student government. Thus,
the direction of causation between participation in
student government and sense of political efficacy should
be scrutinized in future studies.
6. Researchers who may further study participa
tion in Thai student government should remember that old
Thai cultural values such as belief in seniority may
obstruct the development of participatory skills in
student government participants. An excellent example
could be found in Saint Mary School, which was one of the
study units in this sample. To select leaders of three
parties for the student government presidential election,
the student government advisors used the seniority prin
ciple. As elaborated in Chapter 3, the student government
initially selected 60 students from grade 12 only to
receive leadership training. After the training, these
181
students selected three students to be leaders of the
three parties. The party leader who received the highest
vote in the student government election was appointed to
be president, while the other two party leaders were
appointed as vice-presidents. Unlike the selection pro
cedure for these three party leaders, the general members
of the student government were recruited from all students
in grades 7 through 12. In the resulting student govern
ment decision-making process, this seniority system may
influence the general members of the student government to
be submissive to the ideas of the three chosen leaders,
thus blocking the initiative of members. Future studies
should consider such possibly hidden influences.
182
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APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
QUESTIONNAIRE
Directions
1. There are two parts to this questionnaire.
2. Please answer questions by marking an X in the
appropriate blank.
3. Please choose only one answer in each question.
Part one
1. Your gender is
a. male.
b. female.
2. You are attending
a. a public school.
b. a private school.
3. How old are you?
a. 11 years old.
b. 12 years old.
c. 13 years old.
d. 14 years old.
e. 15 years old.
f. 16 years old.
9*
17 years old.
h. 18 years old.
i. 19 years old.
j*
20 years old.
k. 21 years old.
1. over 21 years old.
4. Hhat is the level of your education?
a. grade 7.
b. grade 8.
c. grade 9.
d. grade 10.
e. grade 11.
f. grade 12.
194
5. What is the highest level of education of your
father?
a. Illiterate.
b. Non-formal education.
c. Elementary school.
d. junior high school.
e. Senior high school.
f. Certificate.
g. Diploma.
h. B.A degree.
i. K.A degree,
j. Ph.d degree
k. Other.
6. Have you ever been a student government member
(present and past)?
a. yes.
b. no.
Part Two
1. I would rather try to plan ahead to do something than
make a decision when something comes up.
a. Strongly disagree.
b. Disagree.
c. No opinion.
d. Agree.
e. Strongly agree.
2. I am the kind of person that has good luck more than
bad luck.
a. Strongly disagree.
b. Disagree.
c. No opinion.
d. Agree.
e. Strongly agree.
3. I always plan ahead so that nothing makes me change
my plans.
a. Strongly disagree.
b. Disagree.
c. No opinion.
d. Agree.
e. Strongly agree.
195
4. I consider myself well-qualified to participate in
politics.
a. Strongly disagree.
b. Disagree.
c. No opinion.
d. Agree.
e. Strongly agree.
5. I feel that I could do as good a job in public office
as most other people.
a. strongly disagree.
b. Disagree.
c. No opinion.
d. Agree.
e. Strongly agree.
6. Unlike the weather, there are some things people can
do about government. What happens in the government
will happen from the political participation of
people.
a. Strongly disagree.
b. Disagree.
c. No opinion.
d. Agree.
e. Strongly agree.
7. Citizens have a chance to say what they think about
running the government.
a. Strongly disagree.
b. Disagree.
c. No opinion.
d. Agree.
e. Strongly agree.
8. It is possible to organize the people against the
unjust policies of government.
a. Strongly disagree.
b. Disagree.
c. No opinion.
d. Agree.
e. Strongly agree.
196
9. Voting is an effective way that people like me can
have any say about how the government runs things.
a. Strongly disagree.
b. Disagree.
c. No opinion.
d. Agree,
e. Strongly agree.
10. How often has the advisor of the student government
dealt with controversial issues such as the school
administrators' policies which limit the authorities
of student government?
a. Never.
b. Seldom.
c. Occasionally.
d. Often.
e. Always.
11. How often do student government's advisors allow
participants to present all sides of questions?
a. Never.
b. Seldom.
c. Occasionally.
d. Often.
e. Always.
12. In student government discussion, how frequently do
student government's advisors urge participants to
ask questions about controversial issues?
a. Never.
b. Seldom.
c. Occasionally.
d. Often.
e. Always.
13. During student government discussions, how free do
participants feel to express their opinions?
a. Never.
b. Seldom.
c. Occasionally.
d. Often.
e. Always.
197
14. In the student government discussions, how often do
student government's advisors accept suggestions of
student government and implement the policies
proposed by student government participants?
a. Never.
b. Seldom.
c. Occasionally.
d. Often.
e. Always.
198
APPENDIX B
RELIABILITY OF THE SCALES
Seal* of Personal Efficacy
Item l. I would rather try to plan ahead to do something
than make a decision when something comes up.
Item 2. I am the kind of person who has good luck more
than bad luck.
Item 3.
Number of cases - 828.
I always plan ahead so that nothing makes me
change my plans.
Item means:
Mean Minimum Maximum Range Max/Min Variance
3.3148 2.8635 3.7488 .8853 1.3092 .1961
Inter-item Correlations:
Mean Minimum Maximum Range Max/Min Variance
0.2371 0.1147 0.3164 .2018 2.7595 .0093
Item-total Statistics:
Scale Scale Corrected
Mean Variance item- Squared Alpha
If Item If Item Total Multiple If Item
Item Deleted Deleted Correlation Correlation Deleted
1 6.1957 2.5832 .2660 .0090 .4373
2 6.6123 2.0781 .3971 . 1604 .2039
3 7.0809 2.3115 .2477 .0793 .4794
Reliability Coefficients, 3 items:
Alpha * .4808 Standardized Item Alpha - .4825
200
Seal* of Political Efficacy
Item 1. I consider myself well-qualified to participate
in politics.
Item 2. I feel that I could do as good a job in public
office as most other people.
Item 3. Unlike the weather, there are some things people
can do about government. What happens in the
government will happen from the political
participation of people.
Item 4. Citizens have a chance to say what they think
about running the government.
Item 5. It is possible to organize the people against the
unjust policies of government.
Item 6. Voting is an effective way that people like me
can have any say about how the government runs
things.
Number of cases 828.
Item Means:
Mean Minimum Maximum Range Max/Min Variance
3.4074 3.2271 3.5338 .3068 1.0951 .0145
Inter-item Correlations
Mean Minimum Maximum Range Max/Min Variance
.2622 .1646 .3471 .1825 2.1089 .0034
Item-total Statistics:
Scale Scale Corrected
Mean Variance item- Squared Alpha
If Item If Item Total Multiple If Item
Item Deleted Deleted Correlation Correlation Deleted
1 17.2174 12.5089 .3201 . 1184 . 6690
2 17.1075 11.7768 .4610 .2234 .6221
3 17.0894 11.9461 .4183 .1929 . 6361
4 16.9650 11.4341 .4691 .2351 .6180
5 16.9106 11.9049 .3929 . 1753 .6450
6 16.9324 12.1889 . 3991 . 1644 .6425
Reliability Coefficients, 6 items:
Alpha - .6801 Standardized Item Alpha 6807
201

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Asset Metadata

Creator Chansilp, Vacharin (author)

Core Title Participation In Student Government And Students' Sense Of Political Efficacy Of Four Thai High Schools

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Political Science

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Education, Secondary,OAI-PMH Harvest,political science, general

Language English

Advisor Rosen, Stanley (committee chair), Maxwell, William E. (committee member), Renteln, Alison Dundes (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c20-568339

Unique identifier UC11226374

Identifier 9600961.pdf (filename),usctheses-c20-568339 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 9600961.pdf

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Document Type Dissertation

Rights Chansilp, Vacharin

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

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