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among cities and rural areas, industrial and agricultural sectors, and people with
high and low incomes. The phrase in Thai society, “centralized wealth and dispersed
poverty” can be confirmed in reality through the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report,
2018, where Thailand is among the countries with the highest inequality in the
world with only 1% of Thais holding 66.9% of the wealth in the country.

For Thailand and developing countries, this increasing economic inequality is a
major obstacle to the success of creating consolidated democracy. At the same
time, lacking quality of democracy results in higher social inequality mainly caused
by unfairness of the public policy and law in terms of processes and mechanisms
of the state with centralized resources and power management. Discrimination by
government officials accumulates long-term problems resulting in political and social
conflicts. Over the years, the government has tried to push the policy and law to
continuously balance state mechanisms in various matters in order to bridge the
economic inequality gap, but the severity of the problem is not relieved. Therefore,
the discussion involves qualified speakers and academic researchers to share Thai
and foreign experiences for the analysis of the situations and problems in order to
propose guidelines for bridging the economic inequality gap and building a peaceful
and fair society with better democratic mechanisms and processes.

Main Topics

๏ Guidelines for Democratic Reform for Bridging the Economic Inequality Gap
๏ Effective Policy and Processes for Bridging the Economic Inequality Gap

๏ Guidelines for Legislative / Constitutional Mechanisms for Bridging
the Economic Inequality Gap

๏ Development of a Political System for Bridging the Economic Inequality Gap
๏ Guidelines for Reforming State Mechanisms for Bridging the Economic
Inequality Gap

Group Discussion 4: Increasing Quality of Democracy for

Development of Social Equality

One of the key elements of quality in democracy is recognition on the
principles of equality and respects for the rights and liberty of people. The state
should give equality to the diversity of the population despite different ethnic
groups, religions, and genders. Every group in the country must be treated without
any discrimination under equal social protection and welfare as well as respect for
human dignity, especially those in vulnerable groups, any age range, any gender,