In developing the argument that the Thai cabinet has "had an
effective constituency, the bureaucracy (military and civil) . . .
Riggs makes use of a combination of speculative propositions and
deductions, rather than anything more substantial. He offers "some
guiding norms which might be adopted by any bureaucratic ruling
group" (p. 327). He follows them with some incisive observations on
the Thai administrative system, but the relationship between his speculative
norms and empirical data is loose at best. At any rate, having
a vested interest of my own in drawing certain lines between the Thai
bureaucracy and its political setting (in the form of a book on the
subject), I am inclined to judge that the asserted symbiotic relationship
between political elite and bureaucratic polity is a trifle overstated.
Certainly one should not approach this book expecting to find
a portrait of governance by the bureaucrats.