Why democracy struggles: Thailand’s elite coup
culture
NICHOLAS FARRELLY*
Abstact
Since the revolution of 1932 that ended absolute monarchy, Thailand has
experienced sporadic military interventions, with 19 coups and coup
attempts over those decades. This article explains these military interventions
by emphasising the cultural aspects of Thai coup-making at the elite
level. Concretely, the article shows that episodic military interventionism*
supported by significant and persistent military influence in politics*is now
part of a distinctive elite coup culture. In contrast to other so-called ‘coupprone’
states, Thailand has largely accommodated military interventionism,
especially by accepting the defence of the monarchy as a justification for
toppling elected governments. Thailand’s reluctance to redemocratise, and
the haphazardness of the resulting institutional configurations, suggests that
Thailand’s elite*and, to some extent, the public as well*have deeply
internalised the ultimate acceptability of coups. The test of this arrangement
may come with the end of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s reign and the
potential realignment of military influence in Thai society.
Unduh Full Jurnal : https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0FLac7Yw1lqbk9zWXlqODFOYkk
**Nicholas Farrelly is a Research Fellow at the School of International, Political and Strategic
Studies, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, and co-founder
of New Mandala, a website on mainland South-East Asia. <Nicholas.Farrelly@anu.edu.au>
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