The rise of a national bureaucracy in Thailand

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This study examines whether Thai bureaucracy was national in the sense that the officials were recruited from all over the country and all walks of life, using data obtained from official records of officials (samut prawal) of the Ministry of Agriculture. This record includes 3022 officials who worked at the ministry during the two decades from 1921.The background of officials is analyzed in terms of ecucation, place of birth, and father's occupation. As the record has no entry for father's occupation, it is only possible to ascertain whether an official's father was commissioned official or not. It was found that 83.5%, 8.3%, 5.1%, and 1.8% of officials were from the Central, the South, the Northeast and the North, respectively, while the each region at that time accounted for 41.3%, 12.9%, 32.3%, and 13.5% of the total population, respectively. Above all, 41.9% of officials were from Bangkok and 24.9% were sons of commissioned officials (including the royalty).The officials were classified into three categories according to their education : (A) those with higher education overseas, (B) those with domestic higher (or tertiary) education, and (C) those with only primary or secondary education. Those in categories A and B numbered 91 and 130 respectively, which means that more than 90% of officials received only primary or secondary education. Of officials in categories in A and B, 60% and 51%, respectively, were from Bangkok, and 68% and 36%, respectively, were sons of commissioned officials. These numbers are strikingly high in view of the fact that Bangkok at the time accounted for less than 7% of the total population, and commissioned officials less than 0.2% of the total male population.It can be concluded that Thai bureaucracy was not nationalized before 1940.