position, and deploy their new-found wealth to secure office in election. The traditional dominance of state officials in local affairs has been tempered by the rise of local politicians.
Until the 1970s the politics of local communities and those of the capital were relatively independent. Thus earlier studies of rural Thai society paid little, if any, attention to national electoral politics, and justifiably so (see , for example, the papers in Newer 1979b) There were few links between the political centre and rural areas except through the administrative system.