Institutional Analysis of Decentralization and Options of Stakeholders for Participation in Agro-rural Policy Design

从参与导致更好的政策设计和执行这一假设出发，本研究分析了泰国最近的权力下放努力是有利于还是限制农民的参与，以及他们的参与如何影响农业-农村政策的设计。最初由Elinor Ostrom开发的“机构分析和发展(IAD)框架”被创新性地改编并应用于分析权力下放过程，以便更多地参与政策设计。这项研究将为这些问题提供新的科学见解：(1)泰国的权力下放过程严重依赖两个地方组织--坦邦行政组织(TAOS)和农业技术转移中心(ATTAC)--是否促进参与？(2)这一过程是否考虑到社会的非正式规则？(3)参与对农业-农村政策的设计和随后措施的实施有什么质的影响？(4)最后，基于多标准决策分析，包括利益相关者具体标准的制定，研究将就这些地方组织如何促进农民有效参与提供学术建议。涉及−这三个领域，即(1)权力下放、(2)参与政策设计和(3)机构−并同时关注农业-农村政策的研究相当少。

Starting from the hypothesis that participation leads to better policy design and implementation, this study analyses whether recent decentralization efforts in Thailand favour or constrain participation of farmers and how their participation affects agro-rural policy design. The ‘Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework’, originally developed by Elinor Ostrom, is innovatively adapted and applied in analysing the decentralization process towards more participation in policy design. The research will provide new scientific insights in these issues: (1) Does the Thai decentralization process, which relies heavily on two local organisations, the Tambon Administrative Organisations (TAOs) and the Agricultural Technology Transfer Centres (ATTACs), facilitate participation? (2) Is this process taking account of the informal rules of society? (3) What is the qualitative impact of participation on the design of agro-rural policies and the subsequent implementation of measures? (4) Finally, based on multiple criteria decision analysis including stakeholder-specific criteria elaboration, the research will provide scholarly recommendations on how these local organisations can promote effective farmers’ participation. Studies which cover these three fields − namely (1) decentralization, (2) participation with regard to policy design and (3) institutions − and focus at the same time on agro-rural policies are rather scarce.