Pasuk Phongpaichit Research Articles

Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power. Edited by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker . Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2016. xv, 186 pp. ISBN: 9789814722001 (paper).

Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power. Edited by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker . Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2016. xv, 186 pp. ISBN: 9789814722001 (paper).

Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. A History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World.

Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit have already proved themselves one of the most creative and complementary marital partnerships in the business of interpreting Asia. While they eschew partitioning responsibility, suffice it to say that together they offer both an elegant Cambridge style of historical analysis and great empathy for the Thai sources and context. Following their innovative and successful A History of Thailand (2005), Baker and Pasuk have recently turned their attention to elegant English editions of some crucial Ayutthaya texts. The scholarly effort of rendering into poetic English two colorful epic poems, Tale of Khun Chang Khun Phaen: Siam’s Great Folk Epic of Love and War (2010), and Yuan Phai, Defeat of Lanna: A Fifteenth-Century Thai Epic Poem (2016), was accompanied by a study and translation of The Palace Law of Ayutthaya and the Thammasat: Law and Kingship in Siam (2016). These works provide a cultural depth lacking in earlier surveys, and are drawn on liberally throughout Baker and Pasuk’s A History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World. The Palace Law, for example, provides a vivid picture of the military style of court culture that the authors see as characteristic of the sixteenth century in Siam (105–111).

A History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit

A History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit

Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit, trans. and eds. The Palace Law of Ayutthaya and the Thammasat: Law and Kingship in Siam

Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit, trans. and eds. <i>The Palace Law of Ayutthaya and the Thammasat: Law and Kingship in Siam</i>

Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power

Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power. Edited by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker. Singapore: NUS Press, 2015. Pp. 208. Inequality is a much-debated and controversial issue in the social sciences. Academic and public discourse on inequality is usually confined to advanced economies and rarely includes the developing world, despite rising inequality in economies such as China, India, or Southeast Asia. This volume, dedicated to inequality in the case of Thailand, is the first comprehensive study of its kind. The book highlights that the repeated crises and coups d'etat in Thailand are rooted in inequalities. Thanks to the quality and multifaceted contributions, this edited volume will surely become a key reference book for students of Thailand and of inequality. Phongpaichit and Baker's introduction presents their analysis of how economic inequalities underpin inequalities of power, social positions and access to resources. Using extensive time series data (1962-2015), they show that income inequality has worsened sharply during the development era. Thailand's inequality was one of the highest level in the world when it peaked in 1992. The authors point to several political-economic factors to explain this rising trend in contrast with neighbouring countries. For example, while rising inequality in Thailand is due to the benign neglect of authorities, in Malaysia, the government targeted inequalities after the riots of 1969 by implementing a policy of positive discrimination in favour of the Malays, which also provided it a source of durable legitimacy. It was only in the 2000s that the Thai government enacted a set of policies, including its universal healthcare scheme, that income inequality declined (though nonetheless remaining the highest in Southeast Asia). The remaining chapters look at different sources of inequality in Thailand. In Chapter 2, Laowakul analyses the skewed distribution of wealth based on the analysis of household surveys and the distribution of landholding based on the first ever study of a database of the Land Department. She shows that the concentration of land owning is indeed very high. She attributes this to the under-supply of public goods and services. However, public money is lacking, not because Thailand is a poor country, but because of the low rate of taxation. She proposes a tax on wealth which would fall on relatively few people--given the very high concentration of resources--while generating much-needed public revenues for the supply of public goods. Chapter 3 is dedicated to inequality in education and wages. Lathapipat highlights that overall progress in education has been accompanied by growing disparities in the access to tertiary education. Household income plays an even more important role in limiting continuation to the tertiary level. This explains the widening wage gap between those with secondary and tertiary education as well as between those receiving different standards of tertiary education. The author suggests that providing fair access to good-quality tertiary education will be key to reducing social inequality in the long run. Chapter 4, authored by Achavanuntakul, Rakkiattiwong and Direkudomsak, examines how capital markets affects inequality. First, the stock exchange exacerbates the inequality between those who have access to stock exchange and those who do not because the Thai government has never seriously taxed financial gains and has even granted tax exemptions to investors. Second, the stock exchange advantages the 200 richest families with access to inside information--such as loopholes in regulation or from the non-enforcement of rules --over the vast majority of investors which depend on public information. To support this claim, the authors tracked fifty-seven political stocks at the time of three general elections between 2005-11 and found abnormal returns in all cases. …

Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power ed. by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker

Reviewed by: Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power ed. by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker Thanet Aphornsuvan1 Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker (eds) Singapore: NUS Press, 2016. 208pp. ISBN: 978-981-4722-00-1 This is a book about the political economy of Thailand in the globalized era, focusing especially on the sensitive and much concerned issue plaguing the nation for a long time: inequality. What makes Thailand so conspicuous on this issue is the central theme of the book. The authors studied sources of money income and the social structure, which generate a kind of power that enables the privileged to be richer and more powerful while spelling an unfortunate future [End Page 161] for the working population. The book chapters are the fruits of a research project on ‘Towards a More Equitable Thailand: A study of Wealth, Power, and Reform’. In the tumultuous years during which the nation was divided into two colours of yellow and red with sharp differences in political ideologies, the authors of these chapters were moved to take a more serious look at the phenomenon of inequality in Thai society. Unequal Thailand persuasively argues that the increase in inequality is a product of oligarchy, the rule of the few, one that involves the political system as well as the driving of economic forces creating a new and modern society in which people’s lives have improved in many ways. Yet the small elite were, and are, in control of the vision and reality of the future of the country. In this timely and much-needed book on the sensitive issue of inequality in Thailand, the authors analyse unequal practices and the policies and politics that reproduce the Thai oligarchy. The editors of Unequal Thailand, Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit are well-known scholars of Thai political economy and political history. Their meticulous approach to the study of political economy and careful analyses of the connections between economy and politics in Thailand are evident here in the first chapter. The introductory chapter gives the volume cohesion and persuasively argues that the increase in inequality has been a product of oligarchy, the rule of the few. Based upon the Gini index (a measure of income distribution in which a higher figure means greater inequality), Thailand became one of the most unequal countries in thirty years of economic development from the 1969s to 1990s with the index rising from 0.413 to 0.536. The prominent factors which contributed to this trend included government policies that favoured capital while repressing working people, the concentration of growth mainly in and around Bangkok, the prices, profits, and salaries for some adjusted towards international levels as well as the increase in value of property as globalization enveloped Thailand. From the mid-1970s onwards, world agricultural prices fell relentlessly, bringing down farmers’ income. On top of these factors Thailand lacked strong political will to resolve this growing problem of inequality among the country’s political and bureaucratic leaders. The rest of the book has eight chapters, which make use of government data to show how inequality in economics, politics, and education is sustained in Thailand. The second chapter by Duangmanee Laovakul on ‘Concentration of Land and Other Wealth in Thailand’ is a revelation about the main problem of equity and social justice in a country where agriculture has dominated the economy for so long. Land has been the most fundamental means of production in Thai society since at least the beginning of the formation of the Bangkok Empire under the Chakri dynasty in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Historically, the Ayutthaya king was the ‘lord of the land’ and ‘lord of people’s lives’ to whom all land in the kingdom belonged; no individual ownerships were ever granted to the nobility and phrai (commoners) of the kingdom except usufruct rights or use rights over designated land. The fact that the researcher of the chapter accessed data from the Land Department, a first in the study of land ownership, also tells us about the nature of politics and power involving the management of land in Thailand. The study clearly...

Book Review: Five Studies on Khun Chang Khun Phaen: The Many Faces of a Thai Literary Classic

Among Thai traditional literatures, “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” is considered a star that has been widely mentioned and highly popular among readers. Such popularity means that it has engendered numerous adaptations in various forms, including screenplay, abridged prose, novel, movie, television series, comic, and animation. M.R. Kukrit Pramoj, a former prime minister who was also named a national artist in literature, has described in his collection of articles the value of “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” on studies of Thailand and the Thai people during a certain era that: “...“Khun Chang Khun Phaen” may as well be a record of the culture, the traditions, and the lifestyle of the Thai people - may I say, from the Ayuddhaya era to the reign of King Rama IV of the Rattanakosin era. This record is invaluable in the study of almost everything about the Thai people - from the form of government, the society, the culture, the traditions, and other details of life and lifestyle of the people in Thailand. “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” is, therefore, among the literatures that shall be preserved, and once preserved, studies should be conducted, and understandings sought, as much as possible from this literature... which can be compared to a great treasure.” “Five Studies on Khun Chang Khun Phaen: The Many Faces of a Thai Literary Classic.”, the latest book that collects articles about “Khun Chang Khun Phaen”, is edited by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit, the latter of whom has translated “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” from Thai to English and won the A.L. Becker Southeast Asian Literature in 2010. The collection includes (1) “A Society Which Lacks Principle” by M.L. Boonlua Debyasuvarn, (2) “The Aggression of Characters in Khun Chang Khun Phaen” by Cholthira Satyawadhana, (3) “Khun Chang Khun Phaen and the Moral Landscape of the Three Worlds Cosmology” by Warunee Osatharom, (4) “Space, Identity, and Self-Definition: The Forest in Khun Chang Khun Phaen” by David Atherton, and (5) “The Revolt of Khun Phaen: Contesting Power in Early Modern Siam” the two editors themselves. Three out of five articles by Debyasuvarn, Satyawadhana, and Osatharom had been published before (in Thai and, in order to be included in the latest publication, translated into English by Baker and Phongpaichit), same as the piece by Baker and Phongaichit. Only the work by Atherton, which newly summarizes his master’s dissertation at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has originally been written in English. The pieces by Debyasuvarn and Satyawadhana, written in the 1970s, were among the first attempts to critique Thai traditional literatures in a way that Western modern literatures had been critiqued. On the other hand, the pieces by Osatharom and Atherton, written after the year 2000, were intended to understand the texts of “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” and what these texts would like to represent, such as the government’s religious ideology early in the Chakri dynasty, the identity and the subjectivity in defining areas called “forests”, and a political reinterpretation with regards to the opposition of power. As I had earlier studied “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” in “Political Implication in “Sae Pha Khun Chang - Khun Phaen”, I feel that this book, a collection of articles pertaining to “Khun Chang Khun Phaen”, is a good start and a necessity to read for people who have just become interesting in examining this important Thai traditional literature. The readers would be drawn to see the development and some examples of the many perspectives that can be reflected upon this one literature over the past five decades, and eventually unwittingly invited to discuss and perpetually offer new perspectives.

Pasuk Phongpaichit, and Chris Baker, eds. Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, eds. Singapore: NUS Press, 2015, 216p.Does Thailand have an Oligarchy? If so, how do we define it for the national case of And most importantly for this collection of essays, what is the empirical proof of this in contemporary These are some of the main questions which pervade Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power, edited by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker. Translated and reworked from a Thai-language edition, Su sangkom Thai samoe na (Toward a more equitable Thailand) published in 2014 by Matichon, this volume is a timely and useful review of some of the political economy issues facing Thailand today.With nine chapters by Thai scholars and technocrats, the aim of the book is to provide contemporary data and analysis on those material foundations which have fostered a growth in inequality and a strengthening in in recent years. Some chapters do this better than others, but all provide insight into these issues. In terms of raw empirical analysis all of the research essays are a success, particularly the second chapter on land distribution as an indicator of both inequality and oligarchy. For those interested in the possible material foundations of recent turmoil in Thai political society, this volume is an absolute gem and is more than worth adding to one's library.Theoretically speaking, the introductory chapter by the editors utilizes very recent publications on inequality and to frame the research-based chapters which follow. Noteworthy out of this list are Thomas Piketty's bestselling Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014) and Jeffrey A. Winters' comparative political economy treatise (2011). Those familiar with either of Piketty's or Winters' ideation on these topics will find evidence for both within the volume. In terms of the latter's theory on oligarchy, however, the editors seemed to have disvalued the analytic nuance of Winters' repositioning of toward its original Aristotelian meaning-one which highlights the unique power position of agential material wealth without falling into the structural (or teleological) constraints of Marxist historical materialism. In its place, the editors create the moniker flexible oligarchy to mean any kind of group of elites (whether they be military, political, bureaucratic, royal, business, or so on) which in order to rule the nation. This is somewhat frustrating, because the insights on how wealth is defended, why oligarchs fight, and what this means for a political society are lost. At best then means any network of individuals that are somehow more powerful or more influential than the average Thai person. Networks there are in Thailand, but to elide the difference between an oligarch and an elite is to misunderstand the challenge which inequality and in Thailand pose.Yet to be fair, Winters' conceptualization of has been challenged-most directly in a collection of essays edited by Michele Ford and Thomas Pepinsky (2013, 8) on oligarchy's power within the Indonesian context. This critique has four areas of contestation against as a political force: explanatory capacity, political ontology, methodological orientation, and level of attention paid to non-material sources. And, indeed, within the discussion of theory itself, not everyone agrees on what means. For example, scholars like Richard Robison and Vedi Hadiz (2004) are more than willing to allow to stay within the boundaries of a Marxist understanding of materialism. Yet, the most direct application of Winters' approach to political society in Thailand, at least on the national-level, is by T. F. Rhoden (2015) in the journal article Oligarchy in Thailand? Here, Rhoden argues that Thailand does have an oligarchy, not in the sense of a regime or even as a class that rules everything within the country, but rather in the sense of an empirical fact of Thailand's political economy, which cannot be ignored. …

Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, eds. Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, eds. Singapore: NUS Press, 2015, 216p.Does Thailand have an Oligarchy? If so, how do we define it for the national case of And most importantly for this collection of essays, what is the empirical proof of this in contemporary These are some of the main questions which pervade Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power, edited by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker. Translated and reworked from a Thai-language edition, Su sangkom Thai samoe na (Toward a more equitable Thailand) published in 2014 by Matichon, this volume is a timely and useful review of some of the political economy issues facing Thailand today.With nine chapters by Thai scholars and technocrats, the aim of the book is to provide contemporary data and analysis on those material foundations which have fostered a growth in inequality and a strengthening in in recent years. Some chapters do this better than others, but all provide insight into these issues. In terms of raw empirical analysis all of the research essays are a success, particularly the second chapter on land distribution as an indicator of both inequality and oligarchy. For those interested in the possible material foundations of recent turmoil in Thai political society, this volume is an absolute gem and is more than worth adding to one's library.Theoretically speaking, the introductory chapter by the editors utilizes very recent publications on inequality and to frame the research-based chapters which follow. Noteworthy out of this list are Thomas Piketty's bestselling Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014) and Jeffrey A. Winters' comparative political economy treatise (2011). Those familiar with either of Piketty's or Winters' ideation on these topics will find evidence for both within the volume. In terms of the latter's theory on oligarchy, however, the editors seemed to have disvalued the analytic nuance of Winters' repositioning of toward its original Aristotelian meaning-one which highlights the unique power position of agential material wealth without falling into the structural (or teleological) constraints of Marxist historical materialism. In its place, the editors create the moniker flexible oligarchy to mean any kind of group of elites (whether they be military, political, bureaucratic, royal, business, or so on) which in order to rule the nation. This is somewhat frustrating, because the insights on how wealth is defended, why oligarchs fight, and what this means for a political society are lost. At best then means any network of individuals that are somehow more powerful or more influential than the average Thai person. Networks there are in Thailand, but to elide the difference between an oligarch and an elite is to misunderstand the challenge which inequality and in Thailand pose.Yet to be fair, Winters' conceptualization of has been challenged-most directly in a collection of essays edited by Michele Ford and Thomas Pepinsky (2013, 8) on oligarchy's power within the Indonesian context. This critique has four areas of contestation against as a political force: explanatory capacity, political ontology, methodological orientation, and level of attention paid to non-material sources. And, indeed, within the discussion of theory itself, not everyone agrees on what means. For example, scholars like Richard Robison and Vedi Hadiz (2004) are more than willing to allow to stay within the boundaries of a Marxist understanding of materialism. Yet, the most direct application of Winters' approach to political society in Thailand, at least on the national-level, is by T. F. Rhoden (2015) in the journal article Oligarchy in Thailand? Here, Rhoden argues that Thailand does have an oligarchy, not in the sense of a regime or even as a class that rules everything within the country, but rather in the sense of an empirical fact of Thailand's political economy, which cannot be ignored. …

Somboon Siriprachai (edited by Kaoru Sugihara, Pasuk Phongpaichit, and Chris Baker). Industrialization with a Weak State: Thailand's Development in Historical Perspective. Singapore and Kyoto: NUS Press in association with Kyoto University Press, 2012, xii+183p.

Industrialization with a Weak State: Thailand's Development in Historical Perspective Somboon Siriprachai (edited by Kaoru Sugihara, Pasuk Phongpaichit, and Chris Baker) Singapore and Kyoto: NUS Press in association with Kyoto University Press, 2012, xii+ 183p.Over the past decade, Thailand has experienced constant political turmoil. Although fair evaluation of the reforms of the Thaksin government (2001-06) is not yet possible, there is little doubt that these reforms cut into Thailand's socio-economic fundamentals-long treated as a taboo subject-and affect the core factors that have stabilized and integrated the nation. Undoubtedly, Thaksin's growth strategies, various redistribution policies, and drastic rearrangements of vested interests (i.e. rents) enlarged the economic pie. But these also brought vast wealth to crony business factions, attracting serious complaints from groups that held opposing traditional vested interests. Since the coup d'etat of 2006, the political system has failed to adjust to conflicts in a democratic fashion and the last 10 years have seen the actual democratic process itself continually undermined. Public conflicts between competing groups have become a daily scene, leading to both the military and the judiciary asserting political control, even as the bureaucracy and monarchy do not show any signs of being in full control of the situation.Somboon Siriprachai's posthumous book, Industrialization with a Weak State, develops his observations on and analyses of long-term development in post-war Thailand until 1990s. Adopting a critical stance toward standard development theory, it describes the Thai as a weak state, one contrasted to the strong typically found in East Asian countries. Within such a context, the book discusses the characteristics and shortcomings of Thailand as well as the prospective challenges that the Thai economy faces. While the period the book focuses on is a little out of date (pre-1990), the argument nevertheless contains many insights which remain relevant for Thailand's present socio-economy.The author, Professor Somboon Siriprachai, was a prominent Thai economist, who had long engaged in academic work on Thailand's development in Thammasat University. Regrettably, he suddenly passed away in December 2008 while in Japan, on his way back home from a conference at Kyoto University, where he gave a talk based on one part of the manuscript that became this book, and this reviewer was his discussant. Carrying out his wishes, his friends in academia, Kaoru Sugihara, Pasuk Phongpaichit, and Chris Baker, edited his published journal papers and gathered them together in this book.Owing to the nature of the publication process, this book is a collection of the author's major journal papers, rather than a monograph. However, all chapters share a common concern: to shed light on the fundamental structure of the Thai economy. The seven chapters are divided into three parts. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the book and its basic questions. Chapter 2 focuses on export-led industrialization under the conditions of abundance; chapter 3 on demographic change, land cultivation, and deforestation; and chapter 4 primarily on the inconsistency of development policy. The second half of the book, chapters 5 to 7, revisits the question of East Asian development. These chapters offer a critical overview of modern development economics and focus on the nature of the state as a policy authority in East Asia and Thailand by pointing out the limitations of the applicability of the East Asian miracle to Thailand.Chapter 1 provides an overview of the trajectory of the development stages that took place between the 1940s and the 1990s. These were: the state-owned-enterprise-based economy of the Phibun regime in the 1940s; the private capital-led economy with national development plans and the conservative macroeconomic management of the Sarit regime in the late 1950s to 1960s; industrialization with primary product export and import substitution in 1960s; gradual conversion toward export-led industrialization while coping with the global recession of the 1970s; and serious macroeconomic imbalance and its recovery in the early 1980s. …

Mizuno Kosuke and Pasuk Phongpaichit, eds. Populism in Asia. Singapore: NUS Press and Kyoto University Press,2009, 228p

Mizuno Kosuke and Pasuk Phongpaichit, eds. Populism in Asia. Singapore: NUS Press and Kyoto University Press,2009, 228p

The International Financial Architecture and the Limits to Neoliberal Hegemony

Unlike neoliberalism, [the] new financial architecture recognises the limits of a disembedded global economy. Yet, rather than seeking to rein in the forces of liberalisation by re-embedding intern...

The Thaksinasation of Thailand. By Duncan McCargo and Ukrist Pathmanand. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studeis, 2005. 277 pp. $60.00 (cloth), $23.00 (paper). - Thaksin: The Business of Politics in Thailand. By Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 2004. 302 pp. $22.50 (paper).

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After the Storm: Crisis, Recovery and Sustaining Development in Four Asian Economies

After the Storm: Crisis, Recovery and Sustaining Development in Four Asian Economies. Edited by K. S. Jomo. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2004. Pp. 318. This volume brings together a set of papers written on selected themes of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, with emphasis on the four countries most adversely affected by the crisis - Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and South Korea. Although much has been written about the Asian crisis, this book is unique in its attempt to analyse post-crisis policy-making in political and societal terms, going beyond the narrow confines of pure economic analysis. It also provides considerable new insights into the debate on the role in the recovery process of the standard Keynesian expansionary policies as against the structural adjustment policies advocated by the IMF. The volume opens with a comprehensive editorial introduction which traces the key policy trends during the pre-crisis era and economic adjustment following the onset of the crisis, followed by a preview of the ensuing chapters. Chapter 2 by Joseph Lim examines the role of premature financial sector liberalization and capital account opening in the making of the crisis against the backdrop of the conventional wisdom on sequencing of liberalization reform. It also takes a critical look at the policies recommended by the IMF in the aftermaths of the crisis and highlights the virtues of the Keynesian reflationary policies in the subsequent recovery. In Chapter 3, C.P. Chandrasekekhar, Jayati Ghosh, and Smitha Francis dwell on the silent features of the rapidly evolving global financial system and the need for an international framework for debt workouts with view to cushioning emerging market economies against the danger posed by unregulated capital flows. Andrew Rosser (Chapter 4) probes the political economy of financial sector liberalization in Indonesia in the 1980s and how the haphazard and partial nature of the reform process contributed to the vulnerability to the crisis. Jonathan R. Pincus and Rizal Ramli (Chapter 5) provide an analytical narrative of how capital flights, in combination with domestic financial fragility, set in train the corporate collapse in Indonesia, ultimately paving the way for state control over a larger share of the industrial and financial sectors. Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker (Chapter 6) examine crisis management and recovery in the Thai economy. Chapter 7 by K. S. Jomo is a synthesis of his previous work on the role of capital controls in crisis management in Malaysia. Chin Kok Fay (Chapter 8) studies Malaysia's bank restructuring and its role in the recovery process. Jang-Sup Shin (Chapter 9) analyses the role of Keynesian policies in the recovery process in South Korea against the backdrop of a critical assessment of the IMF-led structural adjustment reforms implemented in the aftermaths of the crisis. The final chapter by M. Mustafa Erdogdu examines the role of the capacity of the state, evolved over four decades during the pre-crisis era as part of the state-led industrialization strategy, in crisis management in South Korea. As is the case with most edited volumes, a major structural limitation of the book is its lack of cohesion. The introductory chapter raises the reader's expectation that the book, as a whole, would provide a careful examination of a number of important issues relating to the choice and formulation of crisis management policies, the recovery process and future growth trajectory of the economies under study. Unfortunately, the ensuing chapters do not live up to this expectation. The volume reads more like an ad hoc collection of papers written by the contributing authors at their own choice, rather than a systematic compilation of chapters of individual contributions commissioned with a central theme. Some of the key issues listed in the introductory chapter with a view to guiding the reader, in particular, the prospect for regaining pre-crisis growth dynamism by the crisis-affected countries and the implications of the crisis for the mainstream advocacy of the East Asian Miracle as a preferred model for emulation by other countries, are not mentioned even in passing, let alone analysing it systematically, in the ensuing chapters. …

Reviews/Comptes rendus

Book reviewed in this article:Manufacturing Montreal: the Making of an Industrial Landscape Thailand's Crisis by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris BakerTerritoire et VieillissementThe Enigma of Ethnicity: Another American DilemmaMaking Social Science Matter: Why Social Enquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed AgainLand Power and Economics on the Frontier of Upper CanadaInternational Tourism Attractions in Central and Southeastern Europe (Multicolour map print; 1:3,000,000; 50.5 times 56.6 cm)

Thailand's Boom and Bust. By Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Press, 1998. 367 pp. $17.50 (paper). Distributed in North America by University of Washington Press. - Thailand's Crisis. By Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Press, 2000. viii, 275 pp. $21.90 (paper). Distributed in North America by University of Washington Press.

Thailand's Boom and Bust. By Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Press, 1998. 367 pp. 21.90 (paper). Distributed in North America by University of Washington Press. - Volume 61 Issue 2

The Thai Village Economy in the Past. By Chatthip Nartsupha. Translated and with an afterword by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Press, 1999. viii, 131 pp. $17.50 (paper).

The Thai Village Economy in the Past. By Chatthip Nartsupha. Translated and with an afterword by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Press, 1999. viii, 131 pp. $17.50 (paper). - Volume 60 Issue 3

The Business of Love: Writings on the Socio-cultural Dynamics of Thailand's Sex Industry

^he pioneering studies include Suganya Hantrakul, in Thailand. Paper Presented to the Women in Asia Workshop, Monash University, Melbourne, July 22-24, 1983 and Pasuk Phongpaichit, From Peasant Girls to Bangkok Masseuses (Geneva: International Labour Office, 1982). The macro-processes of east-west global tourism, the political economy of the Thai tourism industry, the patterns of regional and socio-economic inequalities, in addition to the Buddhist religious norms which relegate women to a lesser moral status, have all been well-treated. Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989); Jeff O'Malley, Tourism and Women's Status in Thai land, Society and Leisure 11(1) (1988): pp. 99-114; Than-Dam Truong, Sex, Money and Morality: Prostitution and Tourism in Southeast Asia (London: Zed Books, 1990); Charles Keyes, Mother or mistress but never a monk: Buddhist notions of female gender in rural Thailand, American Ethnologist 11 (May 1984): pp. 223-41; Marjorie Muecke, Mother sold food, daughter sells her body: The cultural continuity of Prostitution, Social Science and Medicine 35 (1992): 891-90. More recently, and generated particularly by the onset of the AIDS pandemic, considerable attention has been given by Thai and foreign researchers to the study of attitudes to sexual relations and the gendered foundations of leisure behaviour among Thais. Through such statistical and ethnographically based work, in addition to local journalist's research, we are now far better informed about the varieties of prostitutions that Thai women engage in, and the social, economic and ideological foundations of their oppression. Among them are: Graham Fordham, Whiskey, Women and Song: Alcohol and AIDS in Northern Thailand, The Australian Journal of Anthropology 6 (3) (1995): 154-77; Mark Vanlandingham et ai, Friends, Wives and Extramarital Sex in Thailand (Bangkok: Institute of Population Studies, Chulalongkorn University, 1995); Wathinee Boonchalai and Philip Guest, Prostitution in Thailand (Nakhon Pathom: Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, 1994); Pamela Da Grossa, Kampaeng Din: A Study of Prostitution in the All Thai Brothels of Chiang Mai City, Crossroads 4 (2): 155-78; Jiemin Bao, Marriage Among Ethnic Chinese in Bangkok: an Ethnography of Gender, Sexuality and Ethnicity over Two Genera tions (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1994). For Thai language studies see: Gritaya Archawanitkul and Worapon Chaemsanit, Wairunchai Kab Gansue Praweni [Thai Male Youths and Prostitution] (Chiang Mai: Centre for Women's Studies, Faculty of Sociology, Chiang Mai University, 1994); Ongart Rungjanchai, Lui Khrarb Khao Karm: Sopheni Khu Lork. Slork Haeng Chiwit (Muet) [Wading through Foul Desires. The Prostitute is the Partner of the World. Ode to (Dark) Lives] (Bangkok: Matichon, 1990); Yos Santasombut, Mae Ying Si Khai Tua. Chumchon lae Kankhai Praweni nai Sangkhom Thai [The Woman will Sell her Body. Community and Prostitution in Thai Society] (Bangkok: Local Development Institute, 1992).

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this articles: Fiscal Systems and Practices in ASEAN: Trends, Impacts and Evaluation. Edited by Mukul G. Asher. Asian development Asian Development Outlook 1990. Edited by the Asian Development Bank Reforms in China China and the Open Door Policy. By Kevin Bucknall Complexities of Indonesian integration National Integration in Indonesia: Patterns and Policies. By Christine Drake TNCs from developing Asian countries Transnational Corporations from Developing Asian Economies. Perspectives of competitiveness Trade Policies for International Competitiveness. By Robert C. Feenstra. Friedman's lecture tour Friedman in China. By Milton Friedman. Comparing economic performance Perspectives on the Pacific Basin Economy: A Comparison of Asia and Latin America. Edited by Takao Fukuchi and Mitsuhiro Kagami Success of NICs in East Asia Pathways from the Periphery, the Politics of Growth in the Newly Industrializing Countries. By Stephan Haggard. Effectiveness of price stabilization Commodity Price Stabilization in Papua New Guinea. By L. Jolly, A. Beck and P. Bodman. China's urban development Chinese Urban Reform: What Model Now? Edited by R. Yin‐Wang Kwok, William L. Parish, Anthony Gar‐on Yeh and Xu Xueqiang. Economics and environmentalism Market Environmentalism: Lessons for Hong Kong. By Jo Ann Kwong Economics and environmentalism After the Green Revolution: Sustainable Agriculture for Development. By Gordon R. Conway and Edward B. Barbier. Economics and environmentalism Sustainable Development: Economics and Environment in the Third World. By David Pearce, Edward Barbier and Anil Markandya. Economics and environmentalism Wasting Assets: Natural Resources in the National Income Accounts. By Robert Repetto, William Magrath, Michael Wells, Christine Beer and Fabrizio Rossini Taiwan's financial system Money and Finance in the Economic Development of Taiwan. By Lee Sheng‐Yi. Key oil‐related issues The Oil Markets of the Pacific Rim: Into the 1990s. By Paul McDonald. Indonesian economic history Economic Growth in Indonesia, 1820–1940. Edited by Angus Maddison and Ge Prince. Festschrift Economic Development in East and Southeast Asia: Essays in Honour of Professor Shinichi Ichimura. Edited by Seiji Naya and Akira Takayama Japanese investment in ASEAN The New Wave of Japanese Investment in ASEAN. By Pasuk Phongpaichit Macroeconomic adjustment in Asia Beyond Adjustment – The Asian Experience. Edited by Paul Streeten. Recent industrial development Strategies for Industrial Development: Concept and Policy Issues. Edited by Suh Jang‐Won. Vietnamese economy Vietnam's Economic Policy since 1975. By Vo Nhan Tri. Vietnamese economy Doi Moi: Economic Reforms and Development Policies in Vietnam. Edited by Per Ronnas and Orjan Sjoberg. Chinese economy China: Macroeconomic Stability and Industrial Growth under Decentralized Socialism. Chinese economy China: Revenue Mobilization and Tax Policy.

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this articles: Small Industry in Malaysia. By Chee Peng Lim. The Indonesian Interisland Shipping Industry: An Analysis of Competition and Regulation. By H.W. Dick. The Political Economy of Manufacturing Protection: Experiences of ASEAN and Australia. Edited by Christopher Findlay and Ross Garnaut. The Demographic Dimension in Indonesian Development. By Graeme J. Hugo, Terence H. Hull, Valerie J. Hull and Gavin W. Jones. Southeast Asian Affairs 1986. The Forest Resources of Malaysia: Their Economics and Development. By Raj Kumar. Rural China Today. By Frank Leeming. Organizations and Growth in Rural China. By Marsh Marshall. China's Agricultural Modernization: The Socialist Mechanization Scheme. By Tam On Kit. ASEAN‐Australia Trade in Manufactures. By David Lim. Trade, Employment and Industrialization in Singapore. By Linda Lim and Pang Eng Fong. Central Government and Local Development in Indonesia. Edited by Colin MacAcandrews. Industrial Policies for Pacific Economic Growth. Edited by Hiromichi Mutoh, Sueo Sekiguchi, Kotaro Suzumura and Ippei Yamazawa. The Lion and the Mouse? Japan, Asia and Thailand. Edited by Pasuk Phongpaichit, Busaba Kunasirin, and Buddhagarn Rutchatorn. Hong Kong's Financial Institutions and Markets. Edited by Robert Hanley Scott K.A. Wong and Yan Ki Ho. Off‐Farm Employment in the Development of Rural Asia. Edited by R.T. Shand. Fertility in Asia: Assessing the Impact of Development Projects. Edited by John Stoeckel and Anrudh K. Jain. A Question of Class: Capital, the State, and Uneven Development in Malaya. By Jomo Kwame Sundaram. The Economics of Integrated Pest Control in Rice: A Case Study from the Philippines. By Hermann Waibel. China: Long‐term Development Issues and Options. A World Bank Country Report.