The discourse of vote buying and political reform in Thailand

Pacific Affairs

Volumn 78, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 95-113

  Callahan, William A ^a,b  

^a International Relations   (United Kingdom)

^b DURHAM UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ELECTION; POLITICAL DISCOURSE; POLITICAL REFORM;

ASIA; EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; SOUTHEAST ASIA; THAILAND; WORLD;

EID: 23644456414     PISSN: 0030851X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5509/200578195     Document Type: Article

References (70)

1. Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (New York: Vintage, 1973);
2. also see Peter Bratsis, "The Construction of Corruption, or the Rules of Separation and Illusions of Purity in Bourgeois Society," Social Text 77 (Winter 2003), p. 19.
3. Michael Johnston, "The Search for Definitions: the Vitality of Politics and the Issue of Corruption," International Social Science Journal 149 (September 1996) pp. 331-35, p. 332.
4. Gothom Arya, "Election System and Events in Thailand," (Bangkok: Election Commission of Thailand, 2001), p. 7, available online at , site last accessed on 26 July 2003.
5. Sombat Chantornvong, "The 1997 Constitution and the Politics of Electoral Reform," in Duncan McCargo, ed., Reforming Thai Politics (Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2002), pp. 203-46, p. 203.
6. P-Net in ANFREL (Asian Network for Free Elections), The Emergence of New Politics in Thailand: ANFREL Election Report, 6 January-18 August 2001 (Bangkok: ANFREL and FORUM-ASIA, 2001), p. 98.
7. International Monetary Fund, Good Governance. The IMF's Role (Washington, DC: IMF, 1997). The World Bank started this discussion in 1991.
8. See World Bank, Governance and Development (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1992).
9. See Bratsis, "The Construction of Corruption," pp. 9-27.
10. Thirayuth Boonmi, "Good Governance: A Strategy to Restore Thailand," translated by Savitri Gadavanij, in Duncan McCargo, ed., Reforming Thai Politics (Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2002), pp. 31, 29-30.
11. Michael Kelly Connors, Democracy and National Identity in Thailand (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), pp. 155-57.
12. Duncan McCargo, "Alternative Meanings of Political Reform in Contemporary Thailand," The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies 13 (1998), pp. 5, 7.
13. William A. Callahan and Duncan McCargo, "Vote-buying in the Thai Northeast: the July 1995 general election," Asian Survey 36:4 (1996), pp.376-92.
14. Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand (Bangkok: Council of State, 1997), Sections 126-29, (read on 26 July 2003), available online at , site last accessed 22 February 2005.
15. Sombat, "The 1997 Constitution," p. 204.
16. Sombat, "The 1997 Constitution," p. 204.
17. Dominic Faulder, "The Best Government Reformer." Asiaweek, 19 August 2000.
18. P-Net in ANFREL Report, 2001, p. 100.
19. Gothom, "Election System," 2001, pp. 15-6.
20. See Duncan McCargo, "Thailand's January 2001 General Elections: Vindicating Reform?" in Duncan McCargo, ed., Reforming Thai Politics (Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2002), p. 253.
21. Sombat, "The 1997 Constitution," p. 218.
22. Far Eastern Economic Review, 11 January 2001, p. 23.
23. Most of the information for the following argument comes from a confidential report. To maintain the anonymity of interviewers and interviewees, I have changed the names of the provinces to Sumaleeburi, Subinburi and Sainsburi. See Centre for Information on Local Politics in the Northeast, Kan chai nguen ha siang khong phak kanmuang nai kan luektang phuthaen rasadom, 6 Makkarakhom 2544 [Political Party Campaign Expenditure for the House of Representatives Election 6 January 2001] (Mahsarakham: University of Mahasarakham, 3 May 2001).
24. Also see Daniel Arghiros, Democracy, Development and Decentralization in Provincial Thailand (Richmond, UK: Curzon, 2001), pp. 256-68.
25. William A. Callahan, Pollwatching, Elections and Civil Society in Southeast Asia (Aldershot, Hampshire/Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2000), p. 27.
26. Duncan McCargo, "Thailand's Political Parties: Real, Authentic and Actual," in Kevin Hewison, ed., Political Change in Thailand: democracy and participation (London: Routledge, 1997), p. 115.
27. Senate Working Group Report, p. 250.
28. McCargo, "Thailand's January 2001 General Elections," p. 253.
29. Aurel Croissant and Jorn Dosch, "Old Wine in New Bottlenecks? Elections in Thailand under the 1997 Constitution," working paper (Leeds, UK: University of Leeds, 2001), p. 13, available online at , site last accessed 22 February 2005.
30. Peter Jansen, "Coup de Technocrats," Asian Business (April 1991), p. 16.
31. Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, Thailand's Crisis (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2000), p. 125;
32. Connors, Democracy and National Identity, p. 164.
33. Sombat, "The 1997 Constitution," p. 203.
34. Duncan McCargo, "Introduction: Understanding Political Reform in Thailand," in Duncan McCargo, ed., Reforming Thai Politics (Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2002), p. 5.
35. Cited in Michael Kelly Connors, "Political Reform and the State in Thailand," Journal of Contemporary Asia 29 (1999), p. 202.
36. Prawase Wasi, "An Overview of Political Reform," in Duncan McCargo, ed., Reforming Thai Politics (Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2002), p. 23.
37. Cited in Connors, Democraty and National Identity, p. 164.
38. For a more nuanced discussion of jao pho and politics see James Ockey, "The Rise of Local Power in Thailand: Provincial Crime, Elections and Bureaucracy," in Ruth McVey, ed., Money & Power in Provincial Thailand (Singapore: ISEAS Press, 2000), pp. 74-96.
39. ANFREL Report, 2001, p. 20;
40. also see Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, "Chao Sua, Chao Pho, Chao Thi: Lords of Thailand's Transition," in Ruth McVey, ed., Money & Power in Provincial Thailand (Singapore: ISEAS Press, 2000), p. 39.
41. Sombat, "The 1997 Constitution," p. 210.
42. McCargo, "Alternative Meanings of Political Reform," p. 17.
43. McCargo, "Alternative Meanings," p. 20.
44. Anek Laothamatas, "A Tale of Two Democracies: Conflicting Perceptions of Elections and Democracy in Thailand," in R.H. Taylor, ed., The Politics of Elections in Southeast Asia (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 202.
45. Anek Laothamatas, "Sleeping Giant Awakens: The Middle Class in Thai Politics," Asian Review 1993, p. 122.
46. Ananya Bhuchongkul, "Vote-buying: more than a sale," Bangkok Post, 23 February 1992, p. 8.
47. Anek, "Sleeping Giant Awakens," p. 125.
48. See Somchai Phatharathananunth, "Civil Society and Democratization in Thailand: A Critique of Elite Democracy," in Duncan McCargo, ed., Reforming Thai Politics (Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2002), pp. 130-31.
49. Raymond Williams, The Country and the City (London: Chatto & Windus, 1973), p. 1.
50. Prawase, "An Overview of Political Reform," p. 26;
51. Thirayuth Boonmi, "Good Governance," p. 30.
52. For an analysis of the contradictory construction of the middle class in 1991-92 see William A. Callahan, Imagining Democracy: Reading 'the Events of May' in Thailand (Singapore and London: Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, 1998), pp. 35-84.
53. See Somchai, "Civil Society and Democratization in Thailand,";
54. Naruemon Thabchumpon, "NGOs and Grassroots Participation in the Political Reform Process," in Duncan McCargo, ed., Reforming Thai Politics (Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2002), pp. 183-99.
55. See Duncan McCargo, Politics and the Press in Thailand: Media Machinations (London: Routledge, 2000), pp. 1-30.
56. Connors, "Political Reform," p. 204;
57. Benedict Anderson, "Murder and Progress in Siam," New Left Review 181 (1990), pp. 33-48.
58. See Ockey, "The Rise of Local Power," pp. 79-80.
59. See William A. Callahan, "Beyond Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism: Diasporic Chinese and Neo-nationalism in Thailand and China," International Organization 57 (2003), pp. 481-517.
60. Ockey, "The Rise of Local Power," p. 83.
61. Pasuk and Baker, "Chao Sua, Chao pho, Chao Thi," p. 38.
62. Callahan, Pollwatching, pp. 125-41.
63. Far Eastern Economic Review, 9 November 2000, p. 19.
64. Viengrat Netipho, "Itthiphon nai kan muang thongthin khong Thai: suksa koranee muang Chiangmai" [Influence in local politics in Thailand: Case study of Chiangmai] Journal of Social Sciences (Bangkok), 31:2 (July-December 2000), pp. 223-25.
65. Callahan, Pollwatching, chapters 4 and 8.
66. Naruemon, "NGOs and Grassroots Participation," pp. 194-95.
67. Cited in ANFREL Report, 2001, p. 65.
68. Anderson, "Murder and Progress in Siam";
69. Bratsis, "The Construction of Corruption."
70. Pasuk and Baker, Thailand's Crisis, p. 155.