Chaperoning Thai Populist Democracy: Habitus, Structure and Technique of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s Statecraft (1946–2016)

Abstract

In order to identify the structural source of contemporary Thailand’s statecraft , this chapter mainly accounts for the accomplishments for which King Bhumibol Adulyadej managed to establish himself as the de facto sovereign of Thailand . In the first place, it will account for how King Bhumibol consolidated and uplifted the royal power over the military power during and after the Cold War period. It will argue for the ways how King Bhumibol went with the larger but contradictory flows of China-backed communist insurgency and US-backed counter-insurgency, which he gradually absorbed the military and uplifted the royal power. Secondly, through examining the historical formation of the Thai rice political economy, it will argue that developing the national rice economy was a major achievement of King Bhumibol to establish his royal sovereignty especially among the rural majority. Nevertheless, this royal sovereignty has been structured following the historical orbits of the ‘sakdina’ (Thai: meaning ‘power over the land’) order. Thirdly, it will examine the rise of the Shinawatra group as a locally hailed populist force in north and north-eastern Thailand. It will argue that the rise of the post-1990 democratic populism had undermined the monarch-centric ‘sakdina’ structured order. The populist rice policies of the former Prime Ministers Thaksin Shinawatra and Yingluck Shinawatra also posed a significant challenge to the conservative elite of the monarchy, the military and the judiciary. Finally, by asking how to plot bloodless coup in Thailand, it will argue that such technique is essential for the conservative elite to chaperone the populist democracy and defend the ‘sakdina’ order as the most resilient habitus in Thailand.