Myths and realities; the democratization of Thai politics

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2008

Myths and realities; the democratization of Thai politics.

Tamada, Yoshifumi.

Kyoto University Press

2008

356 pages

$79.95

Hardcover

Kyoto area studies on Asia; v.15

DS586

Yoshifumi (political science, Kyoto University) has revised and updated his 2000 Japanese edition for this English translation of his work on democracy in Thailand. Yoshifumi was a student in Bangkok at the time of the 1992 rally and subsequent violent suppression that brought down the prime minister. He begins with this event, tempering memory with scholarship. The Thai relationship with the royal family overshadows the democratic process characterized by a tension between urban and rural, rich and poor. The myth that Yosifumi wishes to dispel is that the urban middle class was a driving force behind the democratic movement. In a new conclusion, he sadly states that the 2007 military coup confirmed his fears that democracy was crumbling. Distributed in the US by ISBS

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