1st Edition

Democracy, Development and Decentralization in Provincial Thailand

By Daniel Arghiros Copyright 2001
    308 Pages
    by Routledge

    308 Pages
    by Routledge

    This definitive study of electoral politics and democratic decentralization in provincial Thailand investigates how democracy is unfolding in the context of emergent capitalism, exploring the relationships between the politics of the locality, the province and the nation from 1950.

    1: Introduction; 2: The Thai State, Democracy, Decentralization and Development; 3: Rural Transformations in a Central Thai District; 4: From the ‘Era of Dictatorship' to the ‘Era of Democracy': The Election of a Subdistrict Head; 5: ‘It's About Giving': The Provincial Council Election of 1990; 6: A Coup, Three General Elections and Learning Democracy: Local Participation in National Politics 1990–1995; 7: ‘You Can't Beat Money': The Provincial Council Election of 1995 and the General Election of 1996; 8: Money, Decentralization and Democratization; 9: Conclusion

    Biography

    Daniel Arghiros

    'Arghiros' in-depth study of local level politics sheds much light on an often neglected aspect of Thailand's political scene. Although an Anthropologist , Arghiros persuasively moves between his home discipline and that of politics and sociology, and in so doing opens up useful interdisciplinary insights.' - Democratization

    'It is seldom that one picks up a book on contemporary Thailand written with as clear and holistic examination of a topic as timely and pertinent as this ... a pioneering contribution to the social anthropology of provincial Thai electoral politics in the late twentieth century.' - Southeast Asian Studies