Where Riggs intended it as a model for analysis, the concept has since been misconstrued by most scholars as a description of reality, rather than an analytical model. Since our concern here is with the way the model has impacted on scholars of Thai Studies, we focus on aspects of the medel that have been used, rather than the model as it was formulated. The aspects of Riggs book that have impacted on the field of Thai Studies include several core elements. Put briefly, he argued that the 1932 overthrow of the absolute monarchy had not been a popular uprising, but an uprising of the bureaucracy, for the bureaucracy. The nobility who had previously dominated cabinet positions were replaced by high-ranking bureaucrats. Bureaucratic norms came to control decision making processes. Access to that process was entirely through personalistic ties to high ranking bureaucrats in the cabinet and the ministries. To avoid persecution, “pariah entrepreneurs” were forced to develop such ties, and pay for them. Thus the rich, the bourgeoisie, were in a position of dependency on the bureaucratic elite. As for the people, Riggs argued that as long as the policies of the bureaucratic polity were moderate, the people would remain quiescent.