Thai Politics: Between Democracy and Its Discontents.

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Author: Sinpeng, Aim
• Date: 01 December 2016

Thai Politics: Between Democracy and Its Discontents. By Daniel H. Unger and Chandra Mahakanjana. Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2016. Hardcover: 251pp.

What explains the decade-long political conflict in Thailand? More broadly, why has the democracy project remained so elusive for this nation despite having had more than eighty years of trials and tribulations since the end of absolute monarchy? Thai Politics: Between Democracy and Its Discontents is among recent scholarship that seeks to provide accounts and explanations for the ongoing political crisis that has engulfed Thailand since 2005. Marked by two coups d'etat in 2006 and 2014, some scholars in the field of comparative politics--regime study in particular--have viewed Thailand as a critical case for what constitutes a "reverse wave" of democratization that has plagued several countries experiencing democratic breakdowns in recent years. Are Thailand's democratic failures unique or can they be explained comparatively as part of a broader political phenomenon affecting countries in the Third Wave, as expounded by American political scientist, Samuel Huntington? While this book squarely focuses on Thailand, and is most appealing to readers already intimately interested in the Thai political developments, the parallels and divergences drawn from this case...