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Executive Summary

The study on "Peace Culture in Political Parties to Strengthen the National

Reconciliation Process" consists of a survey conducted under the political move toward the
election in 2019. After all the political crises in Thailand, there have been considerable impacts
to the country and the people of Thailand in terms of the economy and society. Particularly,
there have been divisions among the people in the society. The obvious political conflicts
began to emerge clearly after the coup of 2005 or for almost 10 years. The mind set of both

totally different political parties is considered the cause of the political conflicts in Thailand.
Each party has raised legitimacy for itself through different forms such as the overthrow of the
government from authoritarian power and the fall of the Thaksin regime. The loss of life and

property of the people has followed. The current conflict in politics is still rooted in the Thai
society and has not been resolved. There is no continuous resolution or common way to find
a sustainable solution. After the coup on May 22, 2015 by General Prayut Chan-ocha, the
government has tried to keep the peace in the country and to create harmony in the society

in a concrete way. The democratic election is set on 24 February 2019 after nearly 5 years
under the coup. How the democratic term of the country will proceed is an academic
pondering and interest for political researchers in Thailand.

The focus of this study is to explore these two main political parties: Phuea Thai Party and
Democrat Party. The research team will examine the peace culture of the two big parties
through their reflections. The political parties are assessed on the existence of peace culture
and social perspectives. To reflect the peace culture in these major political parties in Thailand

is to drive the process of national reconciliation to be sustainable. The key issues of this study
are to search for the peace culture from these Thai political institutions to develop knowledge
acquired into the model and important mechanisms to drive the process of reconciliation in
the Thai society in the future.

The purposes of this research are to: 1) to examine the peace culture in two main Thai political
parties; 2) to apply the peace culture of the political parties in the process of national
reconciliation; and 3) to offer the resolution of political problems in Thailand with the scope

of mix-method research between quantity and quality results with quantitative and qualitative
analysis.

By summarizing the results of the analysis, the most important issue is found in giving

definitions and comments to the peace culture to both parties with the following comments.