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By placing greater emphasis on human rights as an anthropological concern, Don F. Selby concludes that they are a matter of negotiation within everyday forms of sociality, morality, and politics.
This title will be available in its entirety in Open Access. By providing various fascinating first-hand accounts of how citizens negotiate their rights in the context of weak state institutions, Citizenship and Democratization in Southeast Asia offers a unique bottom-up perspective on the evolving character of public life in democratizing Southeast Asia.
Intense political polarization, confrontation and violence have rocked Thailand recently, much of it a divisive legacy of the 2006 coup. Conflicts centre on the legitimacy of institutions and the uses and abuses of power alongside the parallel crisis of state legitimacy posed by the ongoing violence in the country’s Deep South. This collection of essays explores themes and issues arising from the continuing confrontations that have dominated Thailand’s domestic affairs and affected its international relations in the years 2008 to early 2010. Based on extensive research and documentation, this volume offers an important review and analysis of key events and trends in Thailand’s volatile...
This Element aims to provide an overview of Thai politics with an up-to-date discussion of the characteristics of political regimes, political economy, and identity and mobilization that are grounded in historical analysis stretching back to the formation of the modern nation state. The thematic topics will focus on a) the chronic instability and ever-changing nature of political regimes resulting in the failure of democratic consolidation, b) the nexus of business and politics sustained by a patrimonial state structure, patronage politics and political corruption, and c) the contestation of identity and the causes and consequences of mass mobilization in the civic space and street politics.
Thailand’s politics has been contentious in recent years. With a military coup in 2006 and another in 2014, the country has moved from being a promising electoral democracy to a military dictatorship. Electoral politics was embraced enthusiastically by some groups, including those in rural areas of the north and northeast, but came to be feared by groups variously identified as the old elite, royalists and the establishment. The transition to authoritarianism saw large and lengthy street protests and considerable violence. This book examines the background to and the sources of conflict and the turn to authoritarianism. It addresses: the return of the military to political centre stage; the monarchy’s pivotal role in opposing electoral democracy; the manner in which sections of civil society have rejected electoral politics; and the rise of powerful non-elected bodies such as the Constitutional Court.
Southeast Asia, an economically dynamic and strategically vital region, seemed until recently to be transiting to more democratic politics. This progress has suddenly stalled or even gone into reverse, requiring that analysts seriously rethink their expectations and theorizing. The Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian Democratization provides the first book-length account of the reasons for democracy’s declining fortunes in the region today. Combining theory and case studies, it is structured in four major sections: Stunted Trajectories and Unhelpful Milieus Wavering Social Forces Uncertain Institutions Country cases and democratic guises This interdisciplinary reference work addresses to...
He made a fortune of two bilion US dollars in four years. He won four elections by landslides. He was overthrown by a coup and driven into exile. His opponents and supporters dressed themselves in red and yellow and fought battles on the streets. To some, he is a visionary, even a revolutionary. To others, he is greedy, deceitful, deluded, dangerous. This book was first published in 2004. Four new chapters provide a detailed account of the turmoil of Thai politics over the subsequent five years.
Since 1932, Thai politics has undergone numerous political "reforms, " often accompanied by constitutional revisions and shifts in the location of power. Following the events of May 1992, there were strong pressures from certain groups in Thai society for a fundamental overhaul of the political order, culminating in the drafting and promulgation of a new constitution in 1997. However, constitutional reform is only one small part of a wide range of possible reforms, including that of the electoral system, education, bureaucracy, health, welfare, the media, and the military. Reflecting on the twists and turns of reform in Thailand over the years, this volume is a "must have" for everyone interested in Thai politics and its impact on the wider Asian political scene.