THE SUCCESSFUL ELECTORAL STRATEGY OF POLITICAL PARTIES
The country’s prosperity is the result of the effective government development and management. The government will carry out the policies following the political party policies that have campaigned on the problems and needs of people in every group to achieve a better of life. However, because of the past political actions of political parties, people have remained to lack of confidence in their policies and the politicians who are elective candidates. As a result, many political parties have not been successful. Moreover, the votes received from the elections did not meet the goals that the party wanted. . The objectives of this research were to 1) examine the level of variables; political innovation, candidate potential, supporting budget, target group policy, election planning, political communication strategy, and electoral success of political parties; 2) examine the influences of political innovation, candidate potential, supporting budget, target group policy, election planning, and political communication strategy towards the electoral success of political parties; and 3) develop and propose a model for the electoral success of political parties. This research uses mixed research between quantitative and qualitative research. The sample consisted of 480 members of the Executive Committee of political parties and members of the House of Representatives who held offices at all political parties in Thailand. Sampling size was defined based on the proportional sampling method with 20-time criteria of the observed variables. In view of the quantitative research, data collection was conducted through questionnaires that were later analyzed by the structural equation modeling. For the qualitative research, an in-depth interview was conducted through 25 primary informants of party leaders and political expertise. The findings revealed that 1) political innovation, candidate potential, supporting budget, target group policy, election planning, political communication strategy, and electoral success of political parties were all at a high level; 2) political innovation, candidate potential, supporting budget, target group policy, election planning, and political communication strategy influenced the electoral success of political parties with a statistical significance level of .05; and 3) the electoral success model as developed by the research was called “3PIB2S Model” (P = Applicant Potential, P = Election Planning, I = Political Innovation, S = Political Communication Strategy, P = Target Group Policy, B = Supporting Budget, S = Success of Political Parties). Furthermore, the qualitative findings showed that the electoral success of political parties depends on the effectiveness and flexibility of political actions at all dimensions by utilizing innovation and technology for accessibility and immediate response to people’s requirements. The research findings can be applied as a guideline to determine political action policies to enhance the sustainable electoral success of political parties resulting from people’s confidence.
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