The Paradox of the Thai Middle Class in Democratisation

Lertchoosakul, Kanokrat

doi:10.1017/trn.2020.16

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(95 reference statements)

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“…At the same time, Bertrand (1998) highlights that middle class citizens in countries in Southeast Asia have sometimes pressed for more democracy, whereas at other times, they have also supported autocrats. Several scholars also have shown an increasing illiberal turn among the middle class in some countries in this region (Lertchoosakul, 2021;Mietzner and Muhtadi, 2018;Warburton and Aspinall, 2019).…”

Section: Relevant Literaturementioning

confidence: 94%

Narratives of democracy: Educated elites’ responses to democratic erosion in Indonesia

Toha,

Cosslett

2023

Asian Journal of Comparative Politics

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Conventional wisdom maintains that a robust educated middle class is an important factor for a healthy democracy. Recent empirical evidence, however, has shown that there is a significant variation in middle class support for democracy. How do educated elites respond to declines in democracy? To date, we know relatively little about how the educated elites view, talk, and respond as democracy erodes in their country. We address this gap by conducting a discourse analysis of government and educated elites texts in Indonesia from 2010 through 2020. We find that government and educated elites’ discourses on democracy as democracy backslides tend to diverge significantly: While official texts boast of the Indonesia's identity as a Muslim-majority democracy, materials produced by the country's educated middle class express increasing disenchantment with weak political parties, restrictions on freedom of speech, repressive measures toward government critics, and limited checks on executive overreach. Our results suggest that as democracy erodes, government officials’ narratives continue to present the country as a robust democracy, and as such, official narratives alone would not reveal the cracks in democracy in the early stages of decline. Instead, traces of decline are more visible in everyday discourses, where informed citizens express their concerns and criticisms with less fear of reprisals. Rather than standing with the ruling elites, the educated elite authors and producers in our data respond to democratic erosion by resisting and criticizing illiberal measures and demanding greater protection of rights. Our work highlights the importance of an engaged educated middle class who can perceive the subtle erosion in democratic practices and challenge it, both in Indonesia and beyond.

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Section: Relevant Literaturementioning

confidence: 94%

Narratives of democracy: Educated elites’ responses to democratic erosion in Indonesia

Toha,

Cosslett

2023

Asian Journal of Comparative Politics

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“…A third explanation emphasises, meanwhile, historical continuity, pointing here to authoritarian nostalgia being an enduring value set of the country's middle class. From the 1980s, the latter's members would be socialised into prioritising order, morality and royalism in Thai politics (Janjira Sombatpoonsiri, 2020; Kanokrat Lertchoosakul, 2021;Pitidol and Techasunthornwiwat, 2014).…”

Section: Anti-democratic Core: Royalism Nationalism and Conservativismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncivil Society and Democracy's Fate in Southeast Asia: Democratic Breakdown in Thailand, Increasing Illiberalism and Ethnic Cleansing in Myanmar

Bünte

2023

Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs

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Civil society scholarship has repeatedly warned of the dangers of uncivil society for young democracies. However, it remains unclear when and how uncivil society becomes an instrument of democratic backsliding. Using Thailand and Myanmar as its case studies, the article discusses the origins, ideology, and impact of several uncivil society groups, deepening our knowledge on the latter's role in democratic backsliding/breakdown. It argues that uncivil society can act as useful resource for conservative elites seeking to derail democratisation processes. Particularly in times of a perceived or manufactured national crisis, uncivil society successfully pursues illiberal agendas – often in tandem with established elites of the former regime. Also highlighted are the core mechanisms through which uncivil society leads to democratic backsliding/breakdown, as well as the long-term effects these movements have on the erosion of social trust and civility and the poisoning of inter-class or inter-religious relations.

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“…At present, Thailand has a weak democratic political system and structure, and democracy has not grown and been disrupted in Thai society (Chambers, 2020;Ginsburg, 2020;Lertchoosakul, 2021), caused by several coups that alternated between the democratically elected government and the constituted government, forming an undesirable cycle in the Thai political system (Balima, 2020;Hearns-Branaman, 2020). In early period, the coup occurred because of the political power conflicts, but in the latter time, the cause of the coup is a result of the conflict between political parties (Balima, 2020;Hearns-Branaman, 2020;Pongsudhirak, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political participation instruction for monk and novice students in Thailand

et al. 2021

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This research aimed (1) to study the political participation of the monk and novice students in MCUKK as the guideline to develop the political participation instruction for MCUKK students, (2) to suggest the ways to promote the political participation instruction of the monk and novice students. The population of the research was the bachelor degree students: monks and novices (n = 266) of MCUKK. The key informants (15) including 1 educational administrator, 2 directors of Political Science Programs (Bachelor and Master), and 2 lecturers, 10 students selected by Purposive Sampling. This study was conducted by means of the mixed research methodology: quantitative research and qualitative research. The tools used in this research were the five-rating scale questionnaire and an in-depth interview. The research findings indicated that (1) the political participation of the students in four studied aspects were statistically rated the moderate level; (2) the university lecturers should pay attention to educating the legal rights and importance of political participation in terms of voting, political news, political campaign and political rally for the students. The finding suggested that teaching political participation should be managed properly, although there is the law that prohibits monks or novices to get involved in politics.

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The Paradox of the Thai Middle Class in Democratisation

Cited by 5 publications

References 43 publications

Narratives of democracy: Educated elites’ responses to democratic erosion in Indonesia

Narratives of democracy: Educated elites’ responses to democratic erosion in Indonesia

Uncivil Society and Democracy's Fate in Southeast Asia: Democratic Breakdown in Thailand, Increasing Illiberalism and Ethnic Cleansing in Myanmar

Political participation instruction for monk and novice students in Thailand

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