Thailand's agenda-setting process: The foundation of the Special Investigation Department using the FBI

This dissertation examines the Thai national government's agenda-setting process in establishing the Special Investigation Department (SID), using the FBI as a model. The study applies Western theories—Kingdon's policy window model and Weaver's model of political institution—to provide two frameworks to describe how the policy agenda moved to the government agenda, and later, to the legislative agenda. The two Western models were selected because of the possible analogy between Western democracy and Thailand's emerging democracy. The study examines key institutional and individual actors, and looks at their roles and the conditions in which issues were moved onto the legislative agenda.; This research uses a case-study method and a pattern-matching technique to answer the questions of how key actors' roles influenced the agenda formation of establishment of the Thailand SID, as well as which models, Kingdon's policy window or Weaver & Rockman's political institution, better explains the SID establishment. Data has been derived from numerous sources, including personal interviews with the participants, observations, and archival records and documents.; The results of this case study found that Kingdon's policy window better explains the agenda-setting process than Weaver & Rockman's political institution in that three factors—problem recognition, availability of alternatives, and the political stability—were engaged in the process of moving the problems and alternatives onto the legislative agenda. The key participants that engaged in the agenda-setting process were individuals and institutions. While the individual participants were important in helping to set the agenda and generate alternatives, a set of institutions affected the agenda formation through the decision-making process, enhancing the government capability to perform policy innovation.; The implications of this research contributed the implications of the findings and theoretical implications. This research may contribute to the scarcity of literature on the policy processes in Thailand, a nation that has recently moved from a bureaucratic polity to a democratic polity. The results also suggest an important similarity between Thailand and the West, especially with the utility of policy models imported from the West. Thailand's agenda-setting process provides an instructive example of applying Western models to an evolving government.