Dynastic Democracy

Political Families of Thailand
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-0-299-33830-5
Verlag: University of Wisconsin Press

Buch, Englisch, 304 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 638 g

Reihe: New Perspectives in SE Asian Studies

The political history of Thailand since the overthrow of absolute monarchy in 1932 has conventionally been interpreted as a long series of popular struggles for representative democracy and against military authoritarian rule. Yoshinori Nishizaki argues that this history can be better understood as one of struggles by elite political families for and against “dynastic democracy”—a form of democracy that is characterized by the patrimonial transmission of power between members of select ruling families. Dynastic Democracy suggests it is these familial-based contestations for political ascendancy that underlie the tumultuous politics of Thailand, a country that has experienced no fewer than twenty-two coups over the course of the past century.
 
Drawing extensively on Thai-language primary sources, including assets documents and cremation volumes for deceased politicians and their kin, Nishizaki traces the intricate blood and marriage connections among Thailand’s political families. These families may fall into two categories: influential commoner families that have held parliamentary seats since 1932 and form the core of Thailand’s dynastic democracy; and upper-class families that are kin to or aligned ideologically with the royal family and have repeatedly challenged dynastic democracy through coups, constitutional changes, and other political maneuvers. Nishizaki’s exploration of dynastic democracy illustrates how democratic pluralism in Thailand has been consistently stifled, to the detriment of ordinary citizens. Dynastic Democracy fleshes out a widely acknowledged yet heretofore empirically unsubstantiated facet of Thai political history—that in Thai politics, family matters.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Nishizaki, Yoshinori

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Soziale Gruppen & Klassen
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Lists of Tables and Figures
- Preface
- 1 Family Rule in the Thai Parliament: An Overview
- 2 Old Families Die Hard, 1932-73
- 3 Birds of a Feather: Network Monarchy
- 4 Ironies of Political Reforms
- 5 The Royalist Regime Out on a Limb
- 6 Thailand’s Dynastic Democracy in Comparative Perspective
- Abbreviations
- Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Yoshinori Nishizaki is an associate professor in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is the author of Political Authority and Provincial Identity in Thailand. His articles on Thai politics have appeared in the Journal of Asian Studies, Modern Asian Studies, and elsewhere.