Constitutionalism in Thailand: Key Questions of an On-Going Research

Abstract

Our research project3 analyzes Thai political crisis with reference to, firstly, global trend towards rights-based development and specific liberal democratization trajectories. Secondly, project is based on a micro-level analysis of strategic positioning of and debates within social movements concerning a quest for funda- mental rights and a rejection of a 'judicialization' of politics. This focus leads to criti- cal questions about democratization processes along liberal constitutional ideas in general. As situation in Thailand points beyond particular case, its analysis has implications on a regional and global level, both for democratic and political theory and also for practice of development cooperation. We would like to out- line some of these critical core questions in following.Since political crisis in Thailand fully unfolded with military coup in 2006, it continuously intensified and preliminarily culminated in protests, clashes, and eventually violent crackdown of red-shirt demonstrations in May 2010. When Pheu Thai, party close to red-shirts and ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shi- nawatra, won a majority in Parliament in July 2011, it immediately sparked rumors of a new coup; two years later, party faces severe criticism by supporters for seek- ing reconciliation with military, including amnesty for shootings of 2010, and resistance from opponents for trying to amend or even re-draft constitution of 2007.When we talk about deep crisis of Thai political institutions, we have to keep in mind that for a whole decade, democratization process of Thailand was hailed as one of most promising in all South-East Asia: It started with strong pro- democracy movement in 1992, which pushed military out of politics, and many analysts saw adoption of People's Constitution in 1997, with its institutional arrangements and its orientation towards good governance and human rights, as culmination and institutional enshrinement of democratization process. Yet, optimism soon gave way to tensions within society when, in 2001, Thaksin Shinawatra became Prime Minister and large parts of society became alienated by his political and economical agenda (Pye & Schaffar, 2008). Ultimately, he was men- tioned along with Silvio Berlusconi and Hugo Chavez as a prototype of new populism (Mizuno & Pasuk, 2009). Since military coup of 2006, introduction of far- reaching media censorship, and curtailment of political rights and civil liberties, Thailand is widely regarded as an example of return of authoritarianism (Case, 2009).The case of Thailand requires questioning basic assumptions about fram- ing of state institutions (or polity). As their implementation is often schematically promoted, certain state institutions remain unquestioned target of democratiza- tion and development processes worldwide - and not unanticipated outcome of such processes. This problem lies at center of our research project. The aim is to capture struggle for democracy as something processual. In Europe and North America, this process has produced different systems of government, like British Westminster system, Swiss consensus democracy, or US-American checks and balances model of liberal constitutional democracy. Neither of these systems is uncontested or ideally democratic, and all of them are under attack by de-democra- tization tendencies in wake of globalization as well as by most recent politi- cal developments in reactions to worldwide financial and economic crisis (Guth, 2013). The critical analysis of institutional diversity forms one of theoretical bases of project and focuses on a particular observable global development of past years and decades: increasing judicialization of politics (cf. Hirschl, 2004a, 2004b).Generally, judicialization means development of legal strategies to address social problems, or that the exercise of political power is increasingly being trans- ferred from legislature to instances of case-by-case decision-making by individual judges (Fischer-Lescano & Christensen, 2012, p. …