Abstract

In the literature of civil society organizations (CSOs), concept of “governance” has two broad research fields: one focuses on “external governance” and seeks to identify how CSOs are contributing to make the state mechanisms accountable, while the second one deals with “internal” governance of the CSOs and focuses more on the role of the board in achieving the internal governance. Following the research question: what internal and external factors influence the internal governance of CSOs? this cross-sectional survey study of 54 CSOs from Thailand identifies the determinant internal and external enabling factors of good organizational governance practices. The multiple logistic regression showed that the size of the board (OR=31.46, CI: 2.16-458.3), CSOs’ engagement with the government (OR=0.05, CI: 0.03-0.87) and the organizations’ perception on whether the current legislation is clear or not (OR=198.58, CI: 2.09 – 18855) are the factors that influence the internal governance of the civil society organizations in Thailand.

Key words: Civil society organizations, internal governance, Thailand.