The Military and Democratic Backsliding in Thailand

This thesis aims to analyse the political role of Thailand’s military in relation to the country’s democratic backsliding in the twenty-first century. It has long been well known that the military is a key actor in Thai politics. The two most recent military coups, in September 2006 and May 2014, added to the long list of military coups that Thailand has seen since the end of the absolute monarchy era in 1932. Before 2006, however, there was a 15-year period during which the military was virtually absent from politics and electoral democracy appeared to take hold. As successive civilian governments won and lost power in parliamentary elections rather than through non-electoral means, Thailand at the time was evidently heading towards democratic consolidation, cementing its place as part of the global ‘Third Wave’ of countries adopting democracy and rejecting authoritarian rule. The 2006 coup was thus a sudden and largely unexpected event, putting a stop to the previous democratic trajectory while marking a return of the military to forefront of the domestic political scene.

Drawing on first-hand empirical data, the thesis looks at how the military has manipulated politics and contributed to the weakening of Thailand’s democratic prospects. The thesis provides a detailed analysis of the role of the military that focuses on the period from 2006 to the present, a period spanning five elected governments and two military-appointed ones.