The events of the last few months on the streets of Bangkok, or rather of the last
few years, must have made many people, foreigners and Thais alike, wonder what went
wrong with Thailand – a country once known in the west as Southeast Asia’s “beacon
of democracy”. It would be naïve to try to answer this using the 2006 coup d’état that
ousted an elected, but highly corrupt, prime minister as a starting point of all that has led
Thailand seemingly astray, or arguing that only elections could reignite the democratic
fire.
Most democratic societies around the world have gone through their own
democratization process, which at times were traumatic. Thailand is no exception, as it
goes through another tumultuous chapter in its democratic development which started
more than seven decades ago.
Moving towards Liberal Democracy