{"title":"The Limitations on Democratization in Thailand through the Lens of the 2006 Military Coup","authors":"A. Stern","doi":"10.29654/TJD.200707.0006","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This essay analyzes the military coup that occurred in Thailand on September 19, 2006. It considers what led to this event in a country many considered as having made substantial progress in consolidating its democracy. The main argument focuses on the lack of a mass political movement or group that is well-organized, well-financed, and motivated enough to mount a successful, sustained challenge to the key power holders in Thailand: high-level government politicians, the Thai owners or major Thai shareholders of large domestic corporations, and high-ranking military leaders. The lack of a strong and varied interest group structure in Thailand is a critical fissure in the country's political system. Interest group weaknesses have four characteristics: (1) the imbalance of power between the state and interest groups remains highly skewed toward the government; (2) much of the interest group community lacks enough autonomy from the state to effectively promote political reforms; (3) interest groups are fragmented in ways that create major obstacles to forming national coalitions or political parties that support democratization; and (4) the proclivities of Thai history favor a strong monarchy and there is no colonial legacy. These weaknesses contribute substantially to the tenuousness of Thai democracy and leave the political system open to dominance by such powerful players.","PeriodicalId":403398,"journal":{"name":"Taiwan journal of democracy","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2007-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Taiwan journal of democracy","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.29654/TJD.200707.0006","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
This essay analyzes the military coup that occurred in Thailand on September 19, 2006. It considers what led to this event in a country many considered as having made substantial progress in consolidating its democracy. The main argument focuses on the lack of a mass political movement or group that is well-organized, well-financed, and motivated enough to mount a successful, sustained challenge to the key power holders in Thailand: high-level government politicians, the Thai owners or major Thai shareholders of large domestic corporations, and high-ranking military leaders. The lack of a strong and varied interest group structure in Thailand is a critical fissure in the country's political system. Interest group weaknesses have four characteristics: (1) the imbalance of power between the state and interest groups remains highly skewed toward the government; (2) much of the interest group community lacks enough autonomy from the state to effectively promote political reforms; (3) interest groups are fragmented in ways that create major obstacles to forming national coalitions or political parties that support democratization; and (4) the proclivities of Thai history favor a strong monarchy and there is no colonial legacy. These weaknesses contribute substantially to the tenuousness of Thai democracy and leave the political system open to dominance by such powerful players.