Abstract:
This research on the roles of sub-district headman towards local development after 1997: a case study in Phayao province was conducted to study and examine the roles of sub-district headman towards local development policy formulation after 1997, and study and examine the roles of sub-district headman towards local development policy implementation after 1997. A qualitative methodology was used and results obtained through two collection methods including documental study and semi-structured in-depth interviews with 22 key informants including commanders of sub-district headman, chairmans of the sub-district headman and village association, the awarded sub-district headmen with outstanding performance and sub-district headmen. According to the research results, though, after 1997, the power was decentralized to local administrative organizations dismissing a sub-district headman from playing the legal role in local development, the main law related to sub-district headmen has not changed in a way that negatively affects their roles. The headman continued to play a role in policy formation, but their position was changed from the decision maker to coordinator. However, the general public expectations on policy making are still set, mainly, at the headman as they are perceived as a natural leader of the district and the policy-making process goes according to the process model. For the role in policy implementation for local development of the sub-district headman after 1997, as the administrative department has personnel operational duties in every village, various government agencies have given importance to the headman as a local policy driver while the public did not expect their headman to implement all policies as in the past. Such expectations instead are spreaded to various local agencies in accordance with their mission while the headman is expected to be a policy leader for other policies that there are no agencies in the area responsible for. The procedure for policy implementation in local area is in line with Prof.Voradej Chantarasorn's concept of public policy implementation at the micro level.