bureaucratic capitalists and royalists, as well as reforming middle-class elements, provided the day-to-day drama of politics, as did the manoeuvring thin bureaucracy for control. Electoral corruption was also common. The coup of 1958 led by Sarit, however, seemingly no different than the seven (five successful coups that had followed the 1932 revolution, sought to provide a new ideological basis to state stability and to shift the contest of political power decisively outside parliament and its constitutional trappings. Importantly, given the geo-politics of the period, Sarit was also bolstered by US military support and aid. He was thus able to deploy material and ideological resources to effectively address the question of regime identity in a statist direction In the preceding period, democracy h been used both as part of the national ideology and as a rhetorical defence for the pursuit of interest among elite fractions. The constant coups and Cabinet shifts reflected the inability of any enduring power bloc to emerge. This changed with Sarit's success in aligning with US security interests, and by winning over sections of the royalists. A hegemonic bloc, in which the military took the leading role, emerged. It is important to note here that the overthrow of the absolute monarchy ushered in a period of permanent contestation between the monarchists and the People's Party. At the same time, as a new political order emerged centred on the state and bureaucracy, political power became something of a football, maddeningly sought after, occasionally groped even productively directed at times, but always elusive. Within this contest for political power a complex of economic and political fractions emerged that denied the state a constant basis for directing broad hegemonic projects that could win enduring support. Despite this, even if elites could not agree on the terms of political contest (as the litany of coups and constitutions suggests), attempts were made to propagate abstract notions of democracy to the people as part of the production of national identity