Author: J. L. S. Girling Publisher: Ithaca : Cornell University Press ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 318
Book Description
In this comprehensive survey of modern Thai politics, John L. S. Girling examines the relationship between Thailand's governing bureaucracy and the society it rules. Led by a small elite of army officials, the military and civilian bureaucracy held sway for four decades, until its leaders were overthrown by a democratic revolution in 1973. The new coalition wrote a liberal constitution, and the king and his advisers appointed a National Assembly, including businessmen, professionals, and representatives from the provinces--groups previously exluded from the governmental process. Student movements, organized workers, and farmers' associations also emerged and were able to exert political pressure on the policy makers. Three years later, however, the right-wing bureaucracy--taking advantage of a perceived Communist threat from activists within Thailand and from developments in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos--was able to establish its control, with the implicit approval of the king, during the coup of 1976. In this book, Girling takes a close look at the political, economic, and social factors that have shaped Thai history since the 1930s. He analyzes the bureaucracy's rise to power, including the social values and traditions behind the Thai acceptance, for so many years, of an elitist society. He examines the economic growth--attributable in large part to the influence of the West--that has brought about major transformations in the conditions and attitudes of the Thai people and in the power and performance of the state.
Author: Andrew Walker Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres ISBN: 0299288234 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 294
Book Description
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.
Author: Kazuki Iwanaga Publisher: NIAS Press ISBN: 8791114357 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 304
Book Description
This edited volume, including contributions from some of the leading scholars in the field, addresses the challenges, obstacles and opportunities for increased women's political representation in Thailand. Will Thai politics be different with an increase in the number of women politicians? What are the possibilities for Thai women to take proactive initiatives that aim to transform Thai politics into being more gender aware and equal? In seeking to address these and related issues, the analysis brings together a complex interplay of factors, such as traditional Thai views of gender and politics; the national and local political context of the new Thai constitution of 1997; and recent experiences of selected women politicians in the legislative and executive branches of Thai government.
Author: Pranee Liamputtong Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 9400772440 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 538
Book Description
This volume examines contemporary Thailand. It captures aspects of Thai society that have changed dramatically over the past years and that have turned Thailand into a society that is different from what most people outside the country know and expect. The social transition of Thailand has been marked by economic growth, population restructuring, social and cultural development, political movements, and many reforms including the national health care system. The book covers the social, cultural, and economic changes as well as political situations. It discusses both historical contexts and emerging issues. It includes chapters on social and public health concerns, and on ethnicity, gender, sexuality and social class. Most chapters use information from empirical-based and historical research. They describe real life experiences of the contributors and Thai people who participated in the research.
Author: Suchit Bunbongkarn Publisher: DIANE Publishing ISBN: 0788137085 Category : Civil society Languages : en Pages : 122
Book Description
While Thailand is fast acquiring the status of newly-industrializing economy in the 1980s and 1990s, our knowledge and understanding may be based on stereotypes from the post-colonial transformation. We may end up neglecting many of the significant new issues in Thailand that may well determine questions of stability and prosperity in the future. This book provides a thoughtful overview of the significant political, economic and social developments that have shaped Thailand over the last two decades. Bibliography. Index.
Author: Federico Ferrara Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1107061814 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 345
Book Description
This book traces the roots of Thailand's political development from 1932 to the present, accounting for the intervening period's political turmoil.
Author: Ruth McVey Publisher: University of Hawaii Press ISBN: 9780824822736 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 308
Book Description
Most studies of Southeast Asian economic change focus on the phenomenal growth experienced by a few large cities, such as Jakarta, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore. Big business has been viewed as the economic engine fueling the region's growth and prosperity. Studies of the rural areas have concerned themselves with the social and environmental impact of metropolitan growth--villages emptied by migration to the big cities, cultures crushed by tourist development, and agribusiness and lush landscapes destroyed by the devastation of natural resources. The literature reveals that few analysts have examined the middle distance between metropolis and countryside. The contributors to this book have addressed the issue by concentrating on the intermediate level of economic, political, and social life--the world of Thailand's provincial cities and market towns. In the past decade the rise of frequently violent competition for business and political leadership in the Thai provinces, and the growing importance of provincial support for national powerholders, has drawn attention to the way in which these town and village centers are being transformed by capitalist development. This volume brings together some of the research inspired by this, drawing on a variety of disciplinary approaches, national backgrounds, and sites of study. Contributors: Daniel Arghiros, Chris Baker, Sombat Chantornvong, Kevin Hewison, Jim LoGerfo, Ruth McVey, Michael J. Montesano, James Ockey, Pasuk Phongpaichit, Maniemai Thongyou, Yoko Ueda.
Author: J. L. S. Girling
Author: Andrew Walker
Author: Clark D. Neher
Author: David A. Wilson
Author: Kazuki Iwanaga
Author: Pranee Liamputtong
Author: David Morell
Author: Suchit Bunbongkarn
Author: Federico Ferrara
Author: Ruth McVey