Most scholars agree that consolidation of democracy requires mass approval in order to
sustain this form of government. Even overwhelming support for democracy among
peoples of developing nations, however, cannot guarantee democracy in the face of
determined elites who have access to instruments of military power (Linz and Stepan,
2001). The military, after fifteen years of democracy, overturned a democratically-elected
government in Thailand on September 19, 2006, as in 1991, on the pretext of “corruption
in government.” Whether “corruption” warranted such a drastic remedy has yet to be
determined,1
but what is clear is that the Thai aristocracy is still willing to sacrifice
democracy when they find control of government slipping from their grasp.