Socio-cultural Cleavages and Red Shirt-Yellow Shirt Conflicts in Thailand’s Politics: A Critical Multiculturalism View

Abstract

This chapter provides both a brief survey of multiculturalism in Thailand’s politics and an account on how to make sense of Thailand’s current democratization through the lens of critical multiculturalism. A perspective of critical multiculturalism is needed to understand the issues of democratization in Thailand especially after the 2006 coup. This need became clear with the emergence and conflicts between the Yellow Shirt movement (2005–13) and the Red Shirt movement (2007–present).