The political turmoil that has characterised Thailand over the past seven years has given
way to a flood of analysis that has sought to shine light on the main actors engaged in the
conflict. A rich body of scholarship has developed that has drawn attention to intra-elite
conflict, the composition of the Red and Yellow Shirt movements, and the 2006 coup and
the military’s relationship to the palace (for example, Kasian 2006; Thitinan 2008;
Hewison 2008, 2010; Thongchai 2008; Giles 2009a; Glassman 2010). Figuring centrally
in this work has been discussion of the friction between the enduring presence of former
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the agglomeration of actors around the palace –
especially the Privy Council – that McCargo (2005) has termed “network monarchy.”