Political Authority and Provincial Identity in Thailand: The Making of Banharn-buri.

• Author: Dressel, Bjorn
• Position: Book review

Political Authority and Provincial Identity in Thailand: The Making of Banharn-buri. By Yoshinori Nishizaki. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 2011. Hardcover: 254pp.

Occasionally a new book profoundly challenges common assumptions and traditional narratives. Yoshinori Nishizaki's timely and meticulously researched Political Authority and Provincial Identity in Thailand is one such book. Seeking to provide "a more balanced, complex, and nuanced picture of rural politics and state society relations in democratizing Thailand" (p. 5), Nishizaki tells the story of Banharn Silpa-archa, a former prime minister, long-term member of parliament, and for many the archetypal corrupt rural strongman, who hailed from Suphanburi, an agrarian province north of Bangkok. Tracing how Banharn acquired and maintained provincial power and legitimacy, Nishizaki questions the dominant urban image of a rural electorate prey to local strongmen who rise to power through violence, electoral fraud, patronage and pork-barrel projects. Instead he demonstrates how Banharn's success is based on careful cultivation of provincial pride and identity.

Banharn makes for a fascinating read. After early success in business, he served in parliament as a leader of the Chart Thai party from 1976 virtually without interruption until in 2008 the Constitutional Court barred him from politics for five years. His corruption scandals and generous use of pork barrel politics to channel state resources back to Suphanburi were well-publicized, and his brief premiership in 1995-96 was widely perceived as having contributed to the economic crisis in 1997. Thus he became for many urban, educated Thais the personification

of the rural boss who relies on "dirty money transactions twenty-four hours a day" (pp. 7-8). Yet, unlike other politicians similarly accused, in Suphanburi he still enjoys unwavering respect and support.

To explain this, Nishikazi weaves several social-psychological explanations into a causal model that deals with provincial legacies of state neglect and memories of backwardness, as well social action (defined here by generous donations, state fund allocations and local leadership in policing the activities of the bureaucracy). It also takes into account the institutional setting of the post-1973 patrimonial democratic state, which allowed for social actions, and the clientelistic networks that helped advertise development projects and foster legitimacy at the local level. In...