Until recently, the advent of parliament and electoral politics resulted in no major challenge to this order. People invested heavily to ensure that money was critical to electoral success, excluding all those who did not have enough. In the 1990s, around 70 per cent of MP3 were drawn from the ranks of male business owners who make up less than 3 per cent of the population. Parliament was a highly unrepresentative rich men’s club, and one of the key institutions of oligarchic networking.
The financial crisis of 1997 created the conditions for a challenge to this oligarchic structure. Thailand had not experienced a shrinkage of the economy since GDP figures were first collected, and the savage downturn of almost 20 per cent undermined the prestige and credibility of those in power. Against this background, a series of political reforms were pushed through, including a new constitution and decentralization. And the economic distress intensified the upsurge of pressure from below.
Until recently, the advent of parliament and electoral politics resulted in no major challenge to this order. People invested heavily to ensure that money was critical to electoral success, excluding all those who did not have enough. In the 1990s, around 70 per cent of MP3 were drawn from the ranks of male business owners who make up less than 3 per cent of the population. Parliament was a highly unrepresentative rich men’s club, and one of the key institutions of oligarchic networking.The financial crisis of 1997 created the conditions for a challenge to this oligarchic structure. Thailand had not experienced a shrinkage of the economy since GDP figures were first collected, and the savage downturn of almost 20 per cent undermined the prestige and credibility of those in power. Against this background, a series of political reforms were pushed through, including a new constitution and decentralization. And the economic distress intensified the upsurge of pressure from below.
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