FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO DEMOCRATIC CULTURE ALERTNESS: A CASE STUDY OF SUAN SUNANDHA RAJABHAT UNIVERSITY (BACHELOR DEGREE STUDENTS)

The objectives of the research are: 1) to study the level of attentiveness in democratic culture; 2) to compare the level of attentiveness in democratic culture based upon personal factors and political socialization; and 3) to study factors contributing to the attentiveness in democratic culture. The samples are 181 bachelor students studying Political Science at the College of Innovation and Management. The research used surveys for data collection. Statistical analysis was done using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, One-way ANOVA and Multiple Regression Analysis. The research found; 1) the students’ level of attentiveness to democratic culture is at the highest (  ̅ ) 2) hypothesis testing found student’s major is a factor contributed to difference in democratic culture attentiveness while gender, age, religion and college year do not PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences ISSN 2454-5899 841 contributed to difference in democratic culture attentiveness; and 3) Multiple Regression Analysis shown political socialization, family institution, educational institution, and peer factors have effect on employee engagement at 35.3 percent.


Introduction
The late Kingdom of Siam had undergone a democratic revolution on June 24th, 1932. From being governed under absolute monarchy, Thai people have since obtained the country's highest authority. The people possess equal rights and freedom. They live under the majority rule and are governed by the same law (Thanaporn Ngowcharoen, 2017). The transformation provides major contradiction to what was deeply rooted in the Thai community. In order for it to be successful, democratic culture, through political socialization process, must thoroughly be embedded in citizen's subconsciousness. In the other words, it must generate vigilance and attentiveness which can subsequently build active participation in the society. (Samuel Huntington) Democratic alertness had always been observable throughout the Thai's history, and the university students' heroic political demonstrations were among a few circumstances which the new generation remember them by. Some university students are taught to have certain views and beliefs towards democratic culture, therefore those who felt strongly often had the urge to pursue what was right for the society and the country.
Nowadays, members of the society became more vigilance towards democratic culture. For instance, they preserve the basic rights and took part in electoral voting both at local and national level. They have a tendency to express their opinions in the public sphere regardless of their viewpoints. There are many social and environmental factors contributing to the alterations of such perceptions. Political socialisation is formed by the society in which an individual resides in. Today, 'society' not only extended to a physical place but also space and time provided by online platform.
Amongst the most basic institutions, 'family institution' is the first institution which shapes a person's habits, beliefs and ideas. The family institution is comprised of individual members like a father, a mother, or relatives in general.
The knowledge and perceptions are often passed down from these family members to the next generation, and once young children are ready for school, 'educational institution' teaches them other perspectives that are important to the society. It is inarguable that a person with higher education often has higher attentiveness towards certain matters. Friends that belong to the same crowd also have a tendency to develop similar viewpoints. Moreover, 'media and communication institution' is one of the most crucial factors in today's society which has an ability to shape and reshape public's opinions and attentiveness towards political matter. (Almond and Verbra : Sompong Raksatham, 2009) Media today manifest a power to manipulate the crowd in whichever way they want. It is a double-edged sword which can stipulate either positive or undesirable standpoint.
The College of Innovation and Management of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University offers many well-known courses, one of which is Political Science. The students from this major are selected because of their apparent interest in political science. The College also shows strong interest in the subject of democracy as the course syllabus concentrates on topics such as political socialization and democracy. With this reason, one is keen to find out which factors contribute to an awareness and attentiveness in democratic culture in those students.

Research Framework
The framework is stipulated from literature review of many documents and theories on the study of democratic alertness and political alertness as well as democratic culture.
Data analysis is conducted after data collection is performed and inspected for final compilation. Statistical analysis was executed as follow; personal factors analysis used descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean, and t-test to compare the level of democratic culture alertness as per gender, age, religion, university year, and major.
Then, political socialization factors were analysed using mean and standard deviation, subsequently, Multiple Regression technique is used for finding the relationship between these multiple variables.

Methodology
The research defines 'democratic alertness' or 'attentiveness to democratic culture' as the people's faith in democracy, faith in human's honour and equality, and to be abided by the rules of democracy. Moreover, the definition includes citizens partaking in political activities and raising rational criticisms on political events. The people who believes in the power of democracy feels strongly against despotism, totalitarianism, or other forms of dictatorship. The scope of study is in the area of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The study took place from August to September.      There is association between the independent and dependent variables. From the analysis, the result shown the factor has effect on different levels of democratic culture alertness at statistical significance level 0.0.5 and can be illustrated on Table 7 as follow; The correlation coefficient value is used for the calculation of variables prediction and the equation is as follow:

Research Findings
Relatively, positive correlations between the two set of variables, (x)'s association that are found on (y) or the democratic culture alertness are discovered from 'family institution'( ) 'educational institution'( ) and 'peer institution'( ) with coefficient value of.265, .232 and .170 consecutively.
This means family institution( ), educational institution( ) and peer institution( ) are factors contributing to democratic culture alertness.

Result Conclusion
1. The level of democratic culture alertness of bachelor students on the overall in at the highest level. When considered by aspect, the highest to lowest are conscience to faithful citizenship, adherence to democratic rule and disapproval of political dictatorship.
2. Hypothesis testing found gender, age, religion, and university year do not induce differences in culture alertness while degree majors induce differences towards democratic culture alertness.
3.Multiple regression analysis found political socialization factors can predict democratic culture alertness of bachelor degree students of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The factor which has the most effect, in consecutive order, are family institution, educational institution, and peer institution. Age: on this aspect, it was found students with different age do not portray different level of democratic culture alertness at a significance level .05, therefore it rejects the hypothesis. The participants' age groups of this study are between 19-23 years old in which the age range is quite narrow therefore possibly produces indifferent perspectives on certain aspects. Nowadays, it is much easier for one to engage in political culture due to the tremendous growth in mass media access. Hence, students age 19 could have similar electronic access to those age 23. Chaiyakrit

Rattanagorn (2015)'s work on Factors influencing Political Alertness of Students from
Chonrasadorn Aumrung and Chonkunyanukoon Schools which stated that 'age' is not a barrier to opinion expression because everyone is entitled to such rights. Such research also found students of different ages do not have different level of democratic culture alertness. Relatively, the finding corresponds with political socialization theory written by Almond and Verba (1980) saying that political socialization is not limited to age but is alter by direct or indirect experiences, attitudes, values and beliefs.   learning from the day they were born in which anything that has been put in will affect their future.

Religion
For instance, if they are taught to value electoral voting and political voicing, they are more likely to grow up believing in political participation.
Following family institution, educational institution has the second most effect on democratic culture alertness. This is because educational institution has the facility to provide knowledge, values, and beliefs through educational sessions shaped by course structure and content.
Some classrooms may provide opportunities for students to exchange political opinions and became the first public sphere for them to develop opinion voicing confidence. Interestingly, work (Ruchirawat Lamtan : 2015.) on Political Learning Process of Youths in Educational Institution is primarily influenced by education institution as modern institutions tend to place significance interest in political process partly because 1. Course Content and Course Structure, 2. Class Activity, and 3. Teacher. These factors are the key to learning process.
Peer institution demonstrates significant impact on democratic culture alertness.
Peers often belong to the same group and same age. They often have closely related bond and they are likely to behave and react similarly. In terms of political aspect, individuals who belong to a group that is not politically keen often attract similar kind of people and vice versa.
This research found students who belong in the same groups have friends that pay particular interest in political system and they follow news as well as exchanging ideas on the topic. Similarly to (Ruchirawat Lamtan : 2015.) study which found peers have high influence on the group's interest, values, beliefs as well as political beliefs.

Academic Recommendation and Scope of Future Research
1. In the future, the researcher would like to develop qualitative study in combination to the quantitative one. Using in-depth interviews could help identify deeper participants' perspective towards democratic culture. Additionally, key informants can be extended to academicians, politician, political activists, and newer generations.
2. There should be further study on youth's political alertness in educational institutions in other area or regions in order to conduct comparative analysis between different sets of data.
3. The research should also focus on attitudes affecting the democratic culture alertness in order to stimulate stronger reaction in the future.

Research Limitations
This research uses only one sample group. Resulting in only one view of the research results, but in the future, the researcher will use this research In a comparative study with other samples to get modern research results.

Research Recommendation
Educational institution should incorporate democracy related content on a greater level. It should also develop and train institutional employees to have deeper and up to date understanding of the matter.
1. Friends and family should be able to have political participation and exchange opinions even with distinct viewpoints. They should participate in political public sphere to express their viewpoints which can be beneficial to many research developments.
2. Mass media institution should professionally introduce news that are not prejudiced or bias towards certain sides. They should inspect news origins and do not stimulate chaos in the society.
3. Political institution should have greater transparency allowing the people to examine their work and budgeting that came from citizen taxes. The government should provide the information through public relation activities that are easily accessible to all people such as through television channel reporting policy process and evaluation.