ประวัติศาสตร์การเมืองท้องถิ่น เมืองสวรรคโลก พ.ศ.๒๔๗๕-ปัจจุบัน

Abstract

This study employs a historical approach to the "local politics" of the city of Sawankhalok from 1932 up to today. It aims to explain the political process not only from the role of politicians but from the ways ordinary people elect their leaders amid the socio-economic transformations of Sawankhalok. It argues that social and power relations in Sawankhalok has produced "big people" to facilitate the economic system of local production. When the state expands its power into the area, these "big people" have been drawn into state mechanisms, in which they act as a middleman between the state and the villagers. When the commercialization of production increase, together with decentralization of government, the role of the "big people" starts to decrease because the villagers in the new productive environment can build their own relations beyond the existing boundaries, without relying on the "big people"