DOUBTS ABOUT CIVIL SOCIETY
Over the past decade doubts have emerged over the contribution civil society can make to the empowerment and democratic engagement of rural people in Thailand. These doubts came to a head with the role played by civil society organizations in laying some of the ideological groundwork for the anti-Thaksin coup of September 2006, in their support for the coup after the occurred, and in their active role in bringing about the downfall of the pro-Thaksin government elected in late 2007. The people’s alliance for Democracy (PAD) was a dramatic crystallization of emerging doubts about the democratizing force of civil society.