Over the past twenty years, Thailand's rice farmers have become one of the country's most important and active political constituencies, a sharp contrast from the previous decades wherein they were treated with neglect or even derision by the Thai political elite. These "political peasants" now actively advocate for and successfully receive extensive subsidies from both authoritarian and democratic governments. What has driven this change? In this essay, we draw on theories of the policy feedback loop wherein policies yield both material and cognitive benefits, which change the political behavior of populations. We argue that the Thaksin Shinawatra government's (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006) paddy pledging policy altered the mindset of Thai rice farmers, creating a new form of social contract between the rural poor and the state. We demonstrate this by tracing the process through which farmers' political behavior changed, drawing on a variety of evidence, including electoral data, secondary sources, an original survey, focus groups, and interviews with Thai farmers. The paper provides additional understanding regarding the mechanisms through which Thai politics has changed since 2001. On a broader scale, these findings suggest the potential of public policy to create enduring political communities among rural populations.
This paper aims to ascertain the trade impact of a populist program on agriculture. It argues that the scheme has a negative impact on the sector in that it limits the country's competitiveness in agricultural exports due to the government's prices, which are set a great deal above the market prices. Examining the effect of a rice pledging scheme on rice exports in Thailand, the paper finds that the effectiveness of a short-term subsidy program has contributed to a decline in rice export volumes. Appealing to rural voters, the government procures paddy rice from farmers at high prices. The paper proposes that the government should not intervene in the agricultural commodity market via a populist program because it does not encourage the development of the sector in the long run. Instead of intervening in the market, the government should implement market-oriented policy in order to expand the country's agricultural trade.
The government of Thailand attempts to alleviate rice farmers’ poverty through several public programs. One of the government's assistance programs is support for rice production. The “1,000 baht per rai program” aims to redistribute public money to help poor rice farmers reduce their production and cultivation costs. In implementation, however, this program suffers from inequality in granting access to the government's assistance program. This paper aims to explain the pattern of inequality in this government assistance program for rice farmers in rural Thailand. Conducting field research in the northern, southern, and central regions, the study found that rich rice farmers and landlords had more opportunity to access the government's assistance program than poor rice farmers and tenants. This has contributed to the state of inequality among rice farmers. The government should revise how the program is implemented and should limit this inequality among the beneficiaries.
Government in Southeast Asia plays a crucial role in the rice sector. It intervenes in rice production in order to increase the country's production and to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production. How does the government's policy affect rice production? This paper examines the policy effect of government assistance on rice production in Southeast Asian countries and it argues that the less likely government is to impose tax barriers on the rice sector and to control prices, the more likely is rice production to increase. Studying the relation between rice policy and rice production in Southeast Asia, the paper finds that a decline in the state's tax intervention in the rice sector helps to increase rice production in both rice exporting and importing countries. In addition, the results show that political liberalization leads to an increase in rice production. Therefore, a reduction in tax barriers and the abandonment of the state's price control are state policies that encourage rice production in the long run.
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