RESULTS OF COMPARATIVE STUDY
6.1 Comparative Analysis of Agenda Setting
6.1.2 Comparison of Policy Stream
shown by the indicator and feedback such as the decline of population number in Oita prefecture and the increase of population number in other developed prefectures, or the per capita prefectural income of Oita which was much lower than those of the developed prefectures.
Regarding the relocation of population or labour in both cases, it was found that the economic crisis in Thailand drove the financial, industrial, service, and other business sectors which were concentrated in major cities to shut down, resulted in the relocation of labor back to their hometown. On the contrary, the industrial development policy in Japan’s major cities led the labors to relocate from Oita prefecture into those industrial cities.
In conclusion, the consequences of event and crises in the problem stream were at different level, as Thailand’s economic crisis in 1997 was the national-level problem with broad consequence and various indicators and feedback, whiel the sluggishness and economic regression in Oita prefecture was the prefectural-level problem, with the indicator and feedback in the form of people’s relocation and different income between Oita prefecture and other industrial cities.
stand or modesty. The concept of sufficiency economy differs from the liberalism economy which seek to supply the unlimited demand of human. And the sufficiency economy concept could be used in all situation from the community to political level.
Regarding the new theory or the new agriculture theory, the objective was to improve the quality of life for people, so that they could have enough to eat, to consume, and depend on themselves. The important principle is water resource management which would ensure the availability of water during the dry season, by digging reservoir at 30% of the land area. The rest of the land area would be used to grow mixed-crop, so that the household and community could have enough to eat and survive. The rest of the crops can be sold for additional income.
2) Community Culture Concept
Community Culture is the concept which deemed the Thai village community as the basis of Thai society, unlike the European society of individuals with the individual ownership system. Chatthip Nartsupha proposed that the historical development of Thai community was communal, not individual system, as the Thai society have not been through the feudal system but rather the Asiatic system. The rural village community of Thailand has the important resource of land, which allow reproduction in the rural area at all time. Furthermore, the characteristics of the traditional Thai society and culture were the independence, kindness, kinship, sharing, mutually depending on each other, supporting each other, and living together in villages. Within the current boarder of Thailand, many networks of not-for-profit exchange called “take turn to eat and share the food” are still available among the village communities. It could be said that the essential institution of the Thai society is the local community which have been fought and negotiated with the various systems which attempted to dominate them for a long time.
3) Concept of OTOP Product
The concept of OTOP project followed the development policy of Oita prefecture in 1979 by Governor Morihiko Hiramatsu. OVOP was the approach to raise the well-being of community members by manufacturing or management of local resource to be the quality, unique identity which correspond to the local culture.
The word product did not only refer to merchandize but also the thinking process, including services, concervation of natural resource and environment, conservation of
wisdom, tourism, arts and cultures, tradition, the extension of local wisdom, and the exchange and learning how to create quality product with the unique selling point which would be widely known nationally and globally. There were 3 principles of development; Local Yet Global, Self-Reliance-Creativity, and Human Resource Development.
Regarding the feasibility of the three policies, it was obvios that OTOP policy and Sufficiency Economy concept had more technical feasibility than the Community Culture concept. The OTOP’s approach of development for human resource, community, and product was clear. The Sufficiency Economy and New Agriculture Theory about water resource management for dry season mixed-crop planting is also clear in terms of practice and technique. However, the Community Culture concept was highly abstract, as it involved culture, society, and ideal, as it was the head if ideal clash between localism and globalism, among the circumstance which capitalism became the world’s major trend.
Regarding the public relation and attention from society, the Community Culture concept was only awared among the scholars, while the Sufficiency Ecomony concept and OTOP policy received wide public relation and a lot of attention within the society.
Regarding the budget, the Multiple Streams Model deemed that if a lot of budget is required, then it might affect the chance to enter policy agenda setting.
However, the researcher deemed that the budget feasibility should not be the obstruction of selecting any policy to enter the agenda setting.
6.1.2.2 Policy Stream and the OVOP Policy
Regarding the policy stream in Oita prefecture after the problem stream of local community sluggishness after the central government announcement of industrial development policies in major cities. As a result, Japan’s local communities attempted to revitalize their own local community to solve the problem with the following approaches, models, movements, or policies which related to OVOP policy.
1) Oyama Town Movement
The Oyama town movement was the response to the problem of adult population decline similar to other area in Japan and the low income per capita per year, which was much lower than the national income per capita. In 1961, the