Crowdsourcing dictatorship in Thailand

Abstract

What explains popular support for military dictatorship? Existing literature on democratic breakdowns focuses on addressing support for democratic collapse but not subsequent authoritarian regime. This article explores pro-dictatorship sentiment before and during the military dictatorship in Thailand. It uses social media data to analyze support for the antidemocratic mobilization of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) and the subsequent military dictatorship, which lasted from 2014 to 2019. It argues that support for military dictatorship prior to and after regime installment was qualitatively different both in sentiment and type of support. Prior to the coup, pro-dictatorship support was unified by antigovernment sentiment, while following the coup pro-regime support was contingent upon policy preferences of different groups. These findings fill a gap in the literature on regime change, which tends to be focused on explaining support for democratic collapse and remains silent on this support in its aftermath. This study may present the first-ever evidence of pro-dictatorship support following a collapse of democracy.