governments and establish military rule. This is particularly relevant to developing countries where the military still operates as an important political institution some types of However suggested that corruption may political parties and in the long run lead to political development. He pointed out that in Europe and the United States in the early stages of industrialization and democratic development, governments were vulnerable to military intervention and military overthrow. This situation prompted civilian politicians to develop stronger political parties as a counterweight to military power. In the early stages, various forms of corrupt Hall, pork barrel-were important in building up the structure and the assets to make political parties strong and effective. In other words Huntington and others argued that while democracy breeds corruption among political parties and politicians in the short term, in the long term democracy allows strong political parties to develop as a means to counter corruption. The literature on corruption in Thailand has concentrated on the cultural origins of corruption in an attempt to explain the apparent pervasiveness of corruption within the Thai bureaucracy. This literature has argued strongly that activities condemned as corrupt by western norms of public service may be considered as quite legitimate within the framework of Thai patron-client relations, and thus the pervasiveness of so-called corruption is unremarkable. he sudden upsurge of corruption as a major political issue in the late 1980s and early 1990s appears to contradict the conclusions of the earlier Thai literature. It points to the necessity of studying the political and economic background of corruption rather than drawing universal conclusions based o analyses, The rising prominence of business politicians has created a battleground over the control of revenue from corruption. The protagonists are the military, who represent the most politically active segment of the bureaucracy which monopolized the income from corruption in the past, and the new business politicians, who have pressed for greater democratization as a