Democratic transition in Thailand has been astonishing since its overthrow of absolute monarchy in 1932. It has had more shifts to democracy than any other country in Asia coupled with a shift away from democracy within the same period. For instance, since the promulgation of its constitution in 1997, Thailand has failed in all the counts of democracy as stipulated by Stephan and Linz. Between 1997 and 2008, Thailand has had seven prime ministers without considering the interims. There has been a military coup that saw it develop a new constitution under a military dominated government. There were waves of street demonstrations that meant to topple electoral outcomes and a political ban for five years on 220 politicians and executives of parties.
These political happenings were caused be an economic crisis that saw an increase in unemployment rates, bankruptcies and poverty levels. There was also democrat party-led government coalition that implemented ostracized IMF-mandated restructuring. As a result, there was an increase in opposition that saw opposition politicians, business class intellectuals and others unite in a nationalist campaign against the government. A political party was formed, and Thaksin become the leader who then took power. Once in power, he accrued great power top himself and the cabinet where it was even considered by some that he was abusing the provisions in the constitution. Further, Thaskin engaged in serious abuses of the human rights, attempted to control the media and strengthened security agencies. Critics emerged, but they were neutralized.
The 1997 constitution, often identified as the most democratic constitution in Thailand was overthrown in 2006. Traditionally, the constitution was written by dominant military, and political elites and their interest were always triumphed. The existence of a democratic constitution is a not a guarantee that political participation will be embedded. The control of Thaskin in politics, through electoral victories and the ideology that he was bending the law to empower the rural electorates caused a conservative and radical revision of the alliance. This led to a military coup in 2006 that was seen as the only solution to correct the constitution.
Work cited
Chu, Y., and Wong, S., East Asia's New Democracies: Deepening, Reversal, Non-Liberal Alternatives. New York, Routledge Taylor & Francis group, 2010. Print. Retrieved on 22 October 2012 from HYPERLINK "http://kevinhewison.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/hewison-2010_hku_book.pdf" …