Abstract:
This research has the objective to study the extent to which the local people of Phuket province have political readiness and also examine the factors which affect their political readiness with regard to decentralization. The hypothesis is people in Phuket have political readiness for decentralization The methods of study employed are sampling design of 300 issues in questionnaire; population group are householders, local elites, and government officers. The returned and analyzable questionnaire are 239 issues (79.67%). It was found that the people have a high level of political interest, awareness and consciousness, a level of low political knowledge and understanding, moderate political attitudes and high level of political role. The factors that affect political knowledge and understanding are sex, age, education, occupation, income, and political concerns. The factors which do not affect political knowledge and understanding are living conditions, current location, original domicile, length of stay in Phuket, political education, and experience of local government administration. The factors that affect political attitudes are income, living conditions, political concerns. The factors which affect political role are sex, age, living condition, original domicile, length of stay in phuket, political concerns, political education, and experience of local government administration. It is remarkable that the people who live outside the municipality and sanitary district have a higher political role than those who live inside.