Thailand's 2019 Vote: The General's Election

IF 1.4 4区社会学 Q1 AREA STUDIES

Pacific Affairs Pub Date : 2019-09-01 DOI:10.5509/2019923443

Jacob I. Ricks

引用次数: 13

Abstract

Thailand’s March 2019 ballot was the first for the country since 2011, and for many it signaled the potential end of the military junta’s five-year rule. But was it truly a return to democracy? This essay argues that the election was far from a democratization event. Instead, it was a highly orchestrated exercise to ensure authoritarian longevity. The junta employed techniques of institutional engineering as well as managing the election’s outcomes in an effort to extend the premiership of Prayuth Chan-ocha despite increasing pressure for a return to civilian rule. The results of the election suggest that Thai society continues to exhibit deep divisions between those who support and those who oppose military interventions in politics. I further contend that the election should be seen as part of the continuing struggle by conservative forces in society to maintain their dominance in politics despite demands from other segments of the population for equal representation, a contest which is far from over.

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泰国2019年大选投票

泰国2019年3月的投票是该国自2011年以来的首次投票，对许多人来说，这标志着军政府五年统治的可能结束。但这真的是回归民主吗？这篇文章认为这次选举远非民主化事件。相反，这是一次精心策划的演习，目的是确保威权主义的长期存在。尽管要求恢复文官统治的压力越来越大，但军政府还是采用了制度工程和管理选举结果的技术，努力延长巴育·占奥查的总理任期。选举结果表明，泰国社会继续表现出支持和反对军事干预政治的人之间的深刻分歧。我进一步认为，这次选举应该被视为社会中保守势力持续斗争的一部分，以保持其在政治中的主导地位，尽管其他阶层的人口要求平等代表权，这场竞争远未结束。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Pacific Affairs AREA STUDIES-

CiteScore

1.60

自引率

12.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： Pacific Affairs has, over the years, celebrated and fostered a community of scholars and people active in the life of Asia and the Pacific. It has published scholarly articles of contemporary significance on Asia and the Pacific since 1928. Its initial incarnation from 1926 to 1928 was as a newsletter for the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR), but since May 1928, it has been published continuously as a quarterly under the same name. The IPR was a collaborative organization established in 1925 by leaders from several YMCA branches in the Asia Pacific, to “study the conditions of the Pacific people with a view to the improvement of their mutual relations.”