Good Governance Principles in Buddhism for Business and Politics Administration

Abstract

The objectives of this research were: 1) to study the principles of good governance in accordance with the rules and regulations of the office of the Thai Prime Minister; 2) to analyze Buddhist teachings related to the principles of good governance; and 3) to analyze the benefits of good governance principles in Buddhism for business and politics administration. This is a qualitative research. The researchers have studied and discovered the principles of good governance from Buddhist texts, books, documents, journals and related researches. The data were analyzed, discussed and presented in descriptive details along with analysis and recommendation per each aspect. The results of the research were found that: 1. The principles of good governance comprised of 6 important components: 1) Rule of law: enacting law, rule and regulation which are update, fair and just to everyone with equal implementation without discrimination. 2) Merit: praising virtue and merit; adhering to the rightness and goodness; and encouraging government officials and people to have honesty, sincerity, diligence, patience, discipline, and perform trustworthy occupations and professions. 3) Transparency: creating trust among each other by improving working mechanism of each person and organization to be transparent by revealing information straightforwardly, and providing ease to people in accessing the information. 4) Participation: Providing opportunities to people to participate, express ideas, set up plan and policy, and make decision on important issues. 5) Accountability: paying attention to public problems; placing importance on right, duty and social responsibility as well as having braveness to accept the results of his or her own conduct. 6) Economy: using limited resources for the great benefits; encouraging people not to spend luxurious life, and knowing to save and use resources worthily. 2. The principles of good governance in Buddhism can be presented as follows: 1) Rule of law: The Buddha enacted discipline with equity and fairness without discrimination; all Buddhist people have to practice in the same rule and discipline equally. 2) Merit: Buddhism praises merit and virtue more than other things. There are many Buddhist teachings related to good governance which can be presented as Dasarajadhamma or the tenfold code of the king or virtues of the ruler. 3) Transparency: Buddhism encourages Buddhist people to practice in the rule and discipline to be transparent by having good conduct in action, good conduct in word, and good conduct in thought. 4) Participation: Buddhism places great importance on participation; this can be seen in Aparihaniyadhamma, which means the principles leading never to decline but only to prosperity. 5) Accountability: Buddhism teaches that everyone is born with duty and responsibility to themselves, to their relatives and society; everyone has to be responsible for his or her own conduct. 6) Economy: Buddhism teaches people to use resources with saving and worthiness such as the principle of moderation (Mattannuta) which suggests people to have moderation, temperance, and sense of proportion in spending resources. 3. Good governance principles in Buddhism have great benefits for business and politics administration as follows: in terms of governance, good governance principles in Buddhism can help to improve the governance to have good discipline and regularity, eliminate misconduct and corruption. In terms of economy, good governance principles in Buddhism can generate fairness and equity in carrying on an occupation, and improve right and freedom in doing business with knowledge and capability. In terms of society, good governance principles in Buddhism can support and encourage the society to live with happiness and peace, create social equity and integrity, improve human right, and build society to have harmony and unity.