Download or read book Political Authority and Provincial Identity in Thailand written by Yoshinori Nishizaki and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-06 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The powerful Thai politician Banharn Silpa-archa has been disparaged as a corrupt operator who for years channeled excessive state funds into developing his own rural province. This book reinterprets Banharm's career and offers a detailed portrait of the voters who support him. Relying on extensive interviews, the author shows how Banharm's constituents have developed a strong provincial identity based on their pride in his advancement of their province, Suphanburi, which many now call "Banharm-buri," the place of Banharm. Yoshinori Nishizaki's analysis challenges simplistic perceptions of rural Thai voters and raises vital questions about contemporary democracy in Thailand. Yoshinori Nishizaki's close and thorough examination of the numerous public construction projects sponsored and even personally funded by Banharn clearly illustrates this politician’s canny abilities and tireless, meticulous oversight of his domain. Banharn’s constituents are aware that Suphanburi was long considered a "backward" province by other Thais—notably the Bangkok elite. Suphanburians hold the neglectful central government responsible for their province’s former sorry condition and humiliating reputation. Banharn has successfully identified himself as the antithesis to the inefficient central state by promoting rapid "development" and advertising his own role in that development through well-publicized donations, public ceremonies, and visits to the sites of new buildings and highways. Much standard literature on rural politics and society in Thailand and other democratizing countries in Southeast Asia would categorize this politician as a typical "strongman," the boss of a semiviolent patronage network that squeezes votes out of the people. That standard analysis would utterly fail to recognize and understand the grassroots realities of Suphanburi that Nishizaki has captured in his study. This compassionate, well-grounded analysis challenges simplistic perceptions of rural Thai voters and raises vital questions about contemporary democracy in Thailand.
Download or read book Dynastic Democracy written by Yoshinori Nishizaki and published by University of Wisconsin Pres. This book was released on 2022-09-20 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The political history of Thailand since the overthrow of absolute monarchy in 1932 has conventionally been interpreted as a long series of popular struggles for representative democracy and against military authoritarian rule. Yoshinori Nishizaki argues that this history can be better understood as one of struggles by elite political families for and against "dynastic democracy". Drawing extensively on Thai-language primary sources, including assets documents and cremation volumes for deceased politicians and their kin, Nishizaki traces the intricate blood and marriage connections among Thailand's political families. Dynastic Democracy fleshes out a widely acknowledged yet heretofore empirically unsubstantiated facet of Thai political history--that in Thai politics, family matters.
Download or read book Money and Power in Provincial Thailand written by Ruth Thomas McVey and published by NIAS Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 1990s, the Thai provinces saw the rise of a frequently violent competition for business and political leadership. This examination of economic change focuses on this middle ground between metropolis and countryside, an arena being transformed by capitalist development.
Download or read book Political Authority in Thailand written by Richard Basham and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Democracy Development and Decentralization in Provincial Thailand written by Daniel Arghiros and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This definitive study of electoral politics and democratic decentralization in provincial Thailand investigates how democracy is unfolding in the context of emergent capitalism, exploring the relationships between the politics of the locality, the province and the nation from 1950.
Download or read book Public Opinion and Political Power in Thailand written by Robert B. Albritton and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Thailand s Political Peasants written by Andrew Walker and published by University of Wisconsin Pres. This book was released on 2012-08-06 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a populist movement elected Thaksin Shinawatra as prime minister of Thailand in 2001, many of the country’s urban elite dismissed the outcome as just another symptom of rural corruption, a traditional patronage system dominated by local strongmen pressuring their neighbors through political bullying and vote-buying. In Thailand’s Political Peasants, however, Andrew Walker argues that the emergence of an entirely new socioeconomic dynamic has dramatically changed the relations of Thai peasants with the state, making them a political force to be reckoned with. Whereas their ancestors focused on subsistence, this generation of middle-income peasants seeks productive relationships with sources of state power, produces cash crops, and derives additional income through non-agricultural work. In the increasingly decentralized, disaggregated country, rural villagers and farmers have themselves become entrepreneurs and agents of the state at the local level, while the state has changed from an extractor of taxes to a supplier of subsidies and a patron of development projects. Thailand’s Political Peasants provides an original, provocative analysis that encourages an ethnographic rethinking of rural politics in rapidly developing countries. Drawing on six years of fieldwork in Ban Tiam, a rural village in northern Thailand, Walker shows how analyses of peasant politics that focus primarily on rebellion, resistance, and evasion are becoming less useful for understanding emergent forms of political society.
Download or read book Democracy and National Identity in Thailand written by Michael Kelly Connors and published by NIAS Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This revised and updated edition of the widely praised Democracy and National Identity in Thailand provides readers with a fascinating discussion of how debates about democracy and national identity in Thailand have evolved from the period of counter-insurgency in the 1960s to the current period. Focusing on state and civil society centered democratic projects, Connors uses original Thai language sources to trace how the Thai state developed a democratic ideology that meshed with idealized notions of Thai identity, focusing on the monarchy. The book moves on to explore how non-state actors have mobilized notions of democracy and national identity in their battle against authoritarian rule. It also invites readers to explore democratic ideology as a form of power aimed at creating ideal citizens able to support elite national projects.
Download or read book Thai Politics in Translation written by Michael Kelly Connors and published by ASIA Insights. This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since Thailand's prolonged political crisis began with royalist mobilization against prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2005, international observers have been treated to easy clichés about reactionary Thai elites. The chapters in this book invite readers to hold back quick judgement and instead engage with the conservative norms of sections of the middle class, the military, intellectuals and state ideologues. The opening chapter by the editors provides a historical overview of relevant themes and introduces the translated pieces. It also argues that the concept of a supra-constitution, first introduced by legal scholar Somchai Preechasilpakul in a brilliant lecture to the Pridi Banomyong Institute in 2007, is a powerful frame for interpreting conservative Thai politics. Somchai's lecture, now translated here, explains that an unwritten supra-constitution sits above the many failed constitutions that litter Thai history. Like a guiding spirit it contains evolving norms on military and monarchical power which circumscribe democratic political contest.
Download or read book Central Authority and Local Democratization in Thailand written by Michael H. Nelson and published by White Lotus Company, Limited (Thailand). This book was released on 1998 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Political Development of Modern Thailand written by Federico Ferrara and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on extensive, empirical research, The Political Development of Modern Thailand analyses the country's political history from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Long known for political instability, Thailand was thrust into a deep state of crisis by a royalist military coup staged in 2006. Since then, conservative royalists have overthrown more elected governments after violent street protests, while equally disruptive demonstrations staged by supporters of electoral democracy were crushed by military force. Federico Ferrara traces the roots of the crisis to unresolved struggles regarding the content of Thailand's national identity, dating back to the abolition of absolute monarchy in 1932. He explains the conflict's re-intensification with reference to a growing chasm between the hierarchical worldview of Thailand's hegemonic 'royal nationalism' and the aspirations that millions of ordinary people have come to harbour as a result of modernisation.
Download or read book Power Protection and Magic in Thailand written by Craig J. Reynolds and published by ANU Press. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biographical study of an unusual southern policeman explores the relationship between religion and power in Thailand during the early twentieth century when parts of the country were remote and banditry was rife. Khun Phan (1898–2006), known as Lion Lawman, sometimes used rather too much lethal force in carrying out his orders. He was the most famous graduate of a monastic academy in the mid-south, whose senior teachers imparted occult knowledge favoured by fighters on both sides of the law. Khun Phan imbibed this knowledge to confront the risks and uncertainty that lay ahead and bolster his confidence and self-reliance for his struggle with adversaries. Against the background of national events, the story is rooted in the mid-south where the policeman was born and died. Based on a wide range of works in Thai language, on field trips to the region and on interviews with local and regional scholars as well as the policeman’s descendants, this generously illustrated book, accompanied by short video clips, brings to life the distinctive environment of the lakes district on the Malay Peninsula.
Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian Democratization written by William Case and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-17 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Southeast Asia offers unique opportunities for the comparative analysis of democratization. The Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian Democratization provides a comprehensive overview of the development of democracy in the region and shows that political and structural factors differ strikingly across countries. Combining theory and case studies, it is structured in three major sections: Social segments and change processes - Institutions - Country cases and democratic guises. Contributing to on-going debates in the field, this interdisciplinary reference work explores the value systems, social structures and institutions which can affect democratization. At the same time, it tracks the pattern of fragile unfolding and gradual stabilization of democracy, as well as its resultant cost, rollback or even breakdown in the region. Bringing together over 25 key international experts in the field, this cutting-edge Handbook is designed to disaggregate, then order, the many variables that punctuate Southeast Asia's socio-political and economic terrain, and to produce a detailed account of the mixed fortunes of democracy in the region"--
Download or read book Making Democracy written by James Ockey and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2004-08-31 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy in Thailand is the result of a complex interplay of traditional and foreign attitudes. Although democratic institutions have been imported, participation in politics is deeply rooted in Thai village society. A contrasting strand of authoritarianism is present not only in the traditional culture of the royal court but also in the centralized bureaucracies and powerful armed services borrowed from the West. Both attitudes have helped to shape Thai democracy's specific character. This topical volume explores the importance of culture and the roles played by leadership, class, and gender in the making of Thai democracy. James Ockey describes changing patterns of leadership at all levels of society, from the cabinet to the urban middle class to the countryside, and suggests that such changes are appropriate to democratic government--despite the continuing manipulation of authoritarian patterns. He examines the institutions of democratic government, especially the political parties that link voters to the parliament. Political factions and the provincial notables that lead them are given careful attention. The failure to fully integrate the lower classes into the democratic system, Ockey argues, has been the underlying cause of many of the flaws of Thai democracy. Female political leadership, another imported notion, is better represented in urban rather than rural areas. Yet gender relations in villages were more equitable than at court, Ockey suggests, and these attitudes have persisted to this day. Successful women politicians from a variety of backgrounds have begun to overcome stereotypes associated with female leadership although barriers remain. With its wide-ranging analysis of Thai politics over the last three decades, Making Democracy is an important resource for both students and specialists.
Download or read book Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent written by Leo Suryadinata and published by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. This book was released on 2012 with total page 1611 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is a bold project recording the lives of a particular group of Southeast Asians. Most of the people whose biographies are included here have settled down in the ten countries that constitute the region. Each of them has either self-identified as Chinese or is comfortable to be known as someone of Chinese ancestry. There are also those who were born in China or elsewhere who came here to work and do business, including seeking help from others who have ethnic Chinese connections. With the political and economic conditions of the region in a great state of flux for the past two centuries, it is impossible to find consistency in the naming process. Confucius had stressed that correct names make for the best relationships. In this case, Professor Leo Suryadinata has been pursuing for decades the elusive goal of finding the right name to give to the large numbers of people who have, in one way or another, made their homes in, or made some difference to, Southeast Asia. I believe that, when he and his colleagues selected the biographies to be included here, they have taken a big step towards the rectification of identities for many leading personalities. In so doing, he has done us all a great service." - Professor Wang Gungwu, National University of Singapore
Download or read book Southeast Asian Affairs 2012 written by Daljit Singh and published by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. This book was released on 2012-05-10 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Southeast Asian Affairs 2012 provides an informed and readable analysis of the events and developments in the region in 2011. In the regional section of this volume, the first six articles provide the political and economic overview of Southeast Asia and the region. Eleven country reviews as well as six special theme articles follow, delving into domestic political, economic, security, and social developments during 2011 and their implications for countries in the region and beyond.
Download or read book A Sarong for Clio written by Maurizio Peleggi and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-06 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Sarong for Clio testifies to an ongoing intellectual dialogue between its ten contributors and Craig J. Reynolds, who inspired these essays. Conceived as a tribute to an innovative scholar, dedicated teacher, and generous colleague, it is this volume's ambition to make a concerted intervention on Thai historiography—and Thai studies more generally—by pursuing in new directions ideas that figure prominently in Reynolds's scholarship. The writings gathered here revolve around two prominent themes in Reynolds's scholarship: the nexus of historiography and power, and Thai political and business cultures—often so intertwined as to be difficult to separate. The chapters examine different types of historical texts, Thai political discourse and political culture, and the media production of consumer culture. Contributors: Chris Baker; Patrick Jory, University of Queensland, Brisbane; Tamara Loos, Cornell University; Yoshinori Nishizaki, National University of Singapore; James Ockey, University of Canterbury; Maurizio Peleggi, National University of Singapore; Pasuk Phongpaichit, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok; Kasian Tejapir, Thammasat University, Bangkok; Villa Vilaithong, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok; Thongchai Winichakul, University of Wisconsin–Madison
