There is little doubt that economic stability plays a significant role in promoting
growth. Since 1950 to 1996, economic stability in Thailand was quite stable in terms of low
inflation and low unemployment rate. It is quite surprising that frequent military coup d’ etat
have not generated the same pernicious effect on growth similar to those in some Latin
American countries. Political instability did not translate into economic instability. Most
civilian governments were in office in a very short period of time (see table 6). As pointed
out rightly by Feng (2003) government change as the result of a coup d’ etat does not have to
instill political uncertainly into the economy, largely because either the overthrown
government or the coup leaders share the same commitment to a market economy. The
monarchy in Thailand as an old traditional institution enables to keep national conflicts low.
Therefore, a country with many coups d’ etat is still capable of managing growth quite well if
its fundamental principles of macroeconomic remain intact. The fact is clear that from 1932
to 2001, Thailand had 25 governments. Over this period, 10 coups were successful, 16 coups
were failure. The average life span of a Thai government was 24 months from March 1975 to
November 1997. The shortest government was under Suchinda government and the longest
100 months was under Prem (see table 6).