students who had studied abroad in particular in France. The coups of June 24, 1932 were
seen as the end of absolute monarchy and the Provincial Constitution of June 27, 1937 was
drafted and enacted. The critical period took place on the March 2, 1935 when king
Prajadhipok abdicated the throne. The throne was vacant between 1946 and 1950. After that
king Bhumibol Adulyadej returned to Bangkok in 1950 and was very popular with the Thai
people. Since then kin Phumipol has become the most popular king in Thailand.
Modern Thai politic can be traced back when king Chulalongkorn initiated the reform
programme. The modern western style had been implemented such as education, railways,
public health and police, etc. Since the war of 1932, the Thai politics has been opened to new
group of people, mainly bureaucrats which were originated from the great reform by king
Chulalongkorn. This bureaucracy was the major source of employment for educated Thai and
became the main source of power in the Thai politics for decades. Some observers regard the
Thai bureaucracy as a social system with its own values. (Wilson, 1983). Over 1932 to early
1973. the Thai politics was a matter of competition between bureaucratic cliques for the
benefit of government. There is no doubt that the most powerful group of bureaucracy in
Thailand was the army which was well organized and well established had come out on top of
competition. Some political writers terms this period as a semi-democratic era.
In fact, Thailand has applied a bicameral system since 1932 with a constitutional
monarchy. Although the king Bhumibol Adulyadej had ensured a degree of political
continuity, there have been 17 military coups (the last in 1991) since 1932. Genuine civilian
government was restored in 1973, but over the following decades, administrations were
always shorted-lived and unstable. The critical change occurred in January 2001, when the
newly formed Thai Rak Thai (Thai loves Thai) –TRT party under the leadership of a former
policeman and telecommunication tycoon, Thaksin Shinawatra, won a resounding victory in
the general election. The fact should be kept in mind is that Thaksin’s government became
the first administration to complete a four-year term. Furthermore, in the 2005 election, the
Thai Rak Thai party won the general election unprecedentedly and could form a single party
government. This new government represents a new era of Thai politics to the extent that the
parliamentary regime is controlled by the dominant political force. This fact can be explained
by looking at table 1. Thai Rak Thai won 377 seats in the lower house which enables it to
govern alone while over the last decades a government coalition had been the case.