Governance and Poverty Reduction in Thailand

The objective of this study is to find out how Thailand achieves her economic growth along with poverty reduction without good governance practice. The relationships among economic growth, poverty indicators and governance indi- cators are computed by using Pearson’s correlation. The computed results show that the poverty reduction in Thailand is achieved through populist policies which are exercised with low quality of governance, not through growth. It sup- ports general belief that the “pro-poor growth” policy alone without good governance performance is insufficient for enhancing poverty reduction equally. A strategy for reducing poverty and income inequality for Thailand is not to en- hance economic growth but to promote major improvements in governance especially in variable that reflect the per- ception in three governance composite indicators namely Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence, and Rule of Law.