Pridi Banomyong International College

Thammasat University
Course Syllabus

Thai Politics
1/2017
Class time Wednesday 13:00-16:00

Instructor(s)

Dr. Katja Rangsivek

Contact Information : k.rangsivek@gmail.com

Course Description

This course is an introduction to Thai politics and covers the most important issues of this field.
Thereby, it is aimed to also provide the students with a brought overview of the historical context
and theoretical foundations. Current political events will also be discusses as they come up.

Evaluation

A B+ B C+ C D+ D F
100-80 79-75 74-70 69-65 64-60 59-55 54-50 49-00

Class Requirement

This class requires students to complete the following requirements:

Task % of grade

Participation 25

Assignment 25

Presentation 25

Paper/Essay 25

Total 100

Upon assignment of each task students will be given an evaluation rubric that will break
down the points given.
Attendance and Participation

Class attendance follows the general rules of PBIC, which requires the students presence at 80% of
classes. Overall attendance should not be confused with class participation. Participations is judged
upon the students engagement in the class, keeping up with the readings and following the class
etiquette.

Assignment, Presentation and Paper

During the course students are required to complete one assignment, give one presentation and
write on paper or essay. The topics for the assignments will be assigned in class. Students will
formulate their own questions and argumentation. The student presentation is based on the paper
or essay. All assignments have to be submitted on time and should be turned in as a hardcopy during
class and additionally as a softcopy via email.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is to use someone elses ideas and thoughts and pass them off as one owns. Three forms
of plagiarism exist and are practiced to varying degree:

1. Taking work somebody else has writing in part or whole and attach ones name.
2. Using somebodys writing without paraphrasing and without quotation marks even if the
original author is referred to.
3. Paraphrasing another persons work and ideas and to adding a correct reference.
4. Receiving help to an extend that the end result is not one owns.

All three forms of plagiarism are unacceptable and will have consequences. If it is a minor case of
plagiarism the work in question will receive 0 points. PBIC reserves the right for disciplinary actions.

Readings and Schedule

For you to follow the course effectively it is essential that you read all of the required texts. If you
neglect to do so, the lecturer reserves the right to dismiss you from the concerning session of the
course and/or deduct points from your overall participation. In the case that there is any good reason
for you not to be able to read the texts please inform me before the class starts. Such reason can be
sickness or family emergency.

Apart from the required reading each student should venture out to read according to their interest
or in relation with presentations or assignments.

The following is a schedule of topics and respective reading for this course.
Week 1 Introduction 16 Aug. 2017
Reading: Veerayooth Kanchoochat & Hewison, K. (2016). Introduction: Understanding
Thailands Politics. Journal of Contemporary Asia , 46(3), 371-387.
Further Emmerson, D. K. (2008). Southeast Asia in political science: Terms of enlistment. In
Reading: E. Martinez Kuhonta, D. Slater & T. Vu (Eds.), Southeast Asia in political
science: Theory, region and qualitative analysis. Standford: Standford
University Press. Pp. 302-324.
Pasuk Phongpaichit & Baker, C. 2005. A history of Thailand. Cambridge: University
of Cambridge Press.
Terwiel, B. J. (2005). Thailand's political history: From the fall of Ayutthaya to recent
times. Bangkok: Riverbooks.
Unger, D.H. & Chandra Mahakanjana. (2016) Thai Politics: Between Democracy and
Its Discontents. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers

Week 2 State and Nation 23 Aug. 2017

Reading: Bowie, K. (2014). Buddhism and militarism in Northern Thailand: Solving the puzzle
of the Saint Khruubaa Srivichai. Journal of Asian Studies, 73(3), 711-732.
Further Loos, T. (2006). Subject Siam: Family, Law, and Colonial Modernity in Thailand.
Reading: Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
Thongchai Winichakul. (1994). Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Van Esterik, P. (2011). Genealogies of nurture: Of Pots and professors. Journal of
Burma Studies, 15(1), 21- 42.

Week 3 Authoritarianism and Democracy 30 Aug. 2017

Reading: Pasuk Phongpaichit. (2016) Inequality, Wealth and Thailands Politics. Journal of
Contemporary Asia, 46(3), 405-424.
Further Ferrara, F. (2015). The political development of modern Thailand. Cambridge:
Reading: Cambridge University Press.
---. (2011). Thailand: Minimally stable, Minimally democratic. International Political
Science Review, 32(5), 512-528.
Hewison, Kevin. (2010). Thaksin Shinawatra and the reshaping of Thai politics.
Contemporary Politics, 16(2), 119-133.
Nelson, M. H. (2012). Some observations on democracy in Thailand. Hong Kong:
Southeast Asia Research Centre Working Papers 125, Hong Kong: City
University of Hong Kong.
Thongchai Winichakul. (2008). Toppling Democracy. Journal of Contemporary Asia
38 (1):11-37.
 Veerayooth Kanchoochat. (2016). Reign-seeking and the Rise of the Unelected in
Thailand. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 46(3), 486-503.

Week 4 Military 6 Sep. 2017

Reading: Chambers, P. & Napisa Waitoolkiat (2016). The resilience of monarchised military in
Thailand. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 46(3), 425-444.
Further Chambers, P. (2013). A short history of military influence in Thailand. In P.
Reading: Chambers (Ed.), Knights of the Realm: Thailands Military and Police, Then
and Now (pp. 109-445). Bangkok: White Lotus.
---. (2016). Under the Boot: Military-Civil Relations in Thailand since the 2014 Coup.
Southeast Asia Research Centre (SEARC) Working Paper Series No. 187.
Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong.
Puangthong Pawakapan. (2014). The Thai Juntas Interim Constitution: Towards an
Anti-Electoral Democracy. ISEAS Perspective, 54. Singapore: ISEAS.

Week 5 Political Parties 13 Sep. 2017

Reading: Croissant, A. & Chambers, P. (2010). Unravelling intra-party democracy in Thailand.
Asian Journal of Political Science, 18 (2), 195-223.
Further Chambers, P. (2005). Evolving toward what? Parties, factions, and coalition
Reading: behavior in Thailand today. Journal of East Asian Studies, 5(3), 495-520.
Kramol Tongdhammachart. (1982). Toward a political party theory in Thai
perspective. ISEAS Occasional Paper No. 68 Singapore: Maruzen Asia.
McCargo, D. (1997). Thailands political parties: Real, authentic and actual. In K.
Hewison (ed.). Political Change in Thailand: Democracy and Participation
(pp. 114-131). London and New York: Routledge.
McCargo, D. & Ukrist Pathamanand. (2005). The Thaksinization of Thailand.
Copenhagen: NIAS Press. Pp. 70-120.
Ockey, J. (2003). Change and continuity in the Thai political party system. Asian
Survey, 43(4), 663-680.
Siripan Nogsuan Sawasdee. (2006). Thai political parties in the age of reform.
Bangkok, Thailand: Institute of Public Policy Studies.

Week 6 Election Campaigning, Vote-Buying and Patronage 20 Sep. 2017

Reading: Anyarat Chattharakul. (2010). Thai electoral campaigning: Vote-canvassing
networks and hybrid voting. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs,
29(4), 67-95.
Further Aim Sinpeng & Martinez Kuhonta, E. (2012). From the street to the ballot box: The
Reading: July 2011 elections and the rise of social movements in Thailand.
Contemporary Southeast Asia, 34(3), 389-415.
 Callahan, W. A. (2005). The discourse of vote buying and political reform in
Thailand. Pacific Affairs, 78(1), 95-114.
Nelson, M. H. ( 2005). Analyzing provincial political structures in Thailand: Phuak,
trakun, and hua khanaenHong Kong: Southeast Asia Research Centre
Working Papers 79. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong.
Pasuk Phongpaichit & Baker, C. (2013). Reviving democracy at Thailands 2011
elections. Asian Survey, 53(4), 507-628.
Prajak Kongkirati. (2014). The rise and fall of electoral violence in Thailand:
Changing rules, structures, and power landscapes, 1997-2011.
Contemporary Southeast Asia, 36(3), 386-416.

Week 7 Political Violence and the State 27 Sep. 2017

Recommended Thongchai Winichakul. (2002). Remembering/silencing the traumatic past: The
Reading: ambivalent memories of the October 1976 massacre in Bangkok. In Tanabe,
S. &Keyes, C. F. (eds.), Cultural crisis and social memory: modernity and
identity in Thailand and Laos (pp. 243-283). Honolulu : University of Hawaii
Press.
Further Anderson, B. (1977).Withdrawal symptoms: Social and cultural aspects of the
Reading: October 6 Coup. Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 9(3), 13-30.
Haberkorn, T. (2017). The anniversary of a massacre and the death of a monarch.
The Journal of Asian Studies, 76(2), 26928.
Puey Ungphakorn. (1977). Violence and the military coup. Bulletin of Concerned
Asian Scholars, 9(3), 4-12.

Mid-Term 4 Oct. 2017

Week 8 Yellow 11 Oct. 2017

Reading: Anderson, B. (2016). Riddle of yellow and red. New Left Review 97. 7-20.
Further Baker, C. (2016). The 2014 Thai Coup and Some Roots of Authoritarianism. Journal
Reading: of Contemporary Asia, 46(3), 388-404
Nelson, M. H. (2014). Vote no! The PADs decline from powerful movement to
political sect? In Pavin Chachavalpongpun. (Ed.), A good coup gone bad:
Thailands political development since Thaksins downfall (pp. 79-108).
Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS).Pye, O & Schaffar,
W. (2008). The anti-Thaksin movement in Thailand: An analysis. Journal of
Contemporary Asia, 38(1), 38-61.
Week 9 Red 18 Oct. 2017
Reading: Naruemon Thabchumpon & McCargo. D. (2011). Urbanized villagers in the 2010
Thai redshirt protests. Asian Survey, 51(6), 993-1018.
Further Keyes, C. F. (2014). Finding Their Voice: Northeastern Villagers and the Thai State.
Reading: Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
Nishizaki Yoshinori. (2014). Peasants and the red shirt movement in Thailand: Some
dissenting voices. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 41(1), 1-28.
Pattana Kitiarsa. (2012). From red to red: An auto-ethnography of economic and
political transitions in a Northeastern Thai village. In M. J. Montesano, Pavin
Chachavalpongpun. & Aekapol Chongvilaivan (eds.), Bangkok May 2010:
Perspectives on a Divided Thailand (pp. 230-247). Singapore: ISEAS.
Walker, A. (2012). Thailands Political peasants: Power in the modern rural
economy. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.

Week 10 Politics of Funerals 25 Oct. 2017

Reading: Hanks, L. M. Jr. (1962). Merit and power in the Thai social order. American
Anthropologist, 64(6), 1247-61.
Further Heine-Geldern, R. (1956). Conceptions of State and Kingship in Southeast Asia.
Reading: Ithaca: Cornell University Press

Week 11 The Monarchy 1 Nov. 2017

Reading: Thongchai Winichakul. (2014). The monarchy and anti-monarchy: Two elephants in
the room of Thai politics and the state of denial. In Pavin
Chachavalpongpun. (Ed.), A good coup gone bad: Thailands political
development since Thaksins downfall (pp. 79-108). Singapore: Institute of
Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS).
Further Connors, M. K. (2011). When the walls come crumbling down: The monarchy and
Reading: Thai-style democracy. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 41(4), 657-673.
Kershaw, R. (2001). Monarchy in Southeast Asia: The faces of tradition in transition.
London and New York: Routledge.
Kobkua Suwannathat-Pian. (2003). Kings, country and constitutions: Thailands
political development 1932-2000. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon.
Ockey, J. (2005). Monarch, monarchy, succession and stability in Thailand. Asia
Pacific Viewpoint, 46(2), 115-127.
Streckfuss, D. (2014). Freedom and silencing under the neo-absolutist monarchy
regime in thailand, 2006-2011. In Pavin Chachavalpongpun. (Ed.), A good
coup gone bad: Thailands political development since Thaksins downfall
(pp. 79-108). Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS).
Week 12 Networks 8 Nov. 2017
Reading: McCargo, D. (2005). Network monarchy and legitimacy crisis in Thailand. The Pacific
Review, 18(4), 499-519.
Further Hanks, L. M. (1975). The Thai social order as entourage and circle. In W. Skinner &
Reading: A.T. Kirsch. (Eds.), Change and persistence in Thai society (pp. 197-218).
Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
Harris, J. (2014). Who governs? Autonomous political networks as a challenge to
power in Thailand. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 45(1), 3-25.
Mrieau, E. (2016) Thailands deep state, royal power and the constitutional court
(19972015). Journal of Contemporary Asia, 46(3), 445 466.

Week 13 Political Dynasties and Women (not) in Thai Politics 15 Nov. 2017
Reading: Stithorn Thananithichot & Wichuda Satidporn. (2016). Political Dynasties in
Thailand: The Recent Picture after the 2011 General Election. Asian Studies
Review, 40(3), 340359
Further Bowie, K. (2008). Standing in the shadows: Of matrilocality and the role of women
Reading: in a village election in Northern Thailand. American Ethnologist, 35(1), 136-
153.
---. (2010). Womens suffrage in Thailand: A Southeast Asian historiographical
challenge. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 52(4), 708 -741.
Iwanaga, K. & Marjorie Suriyamongkol (eds.) (2007). Women and Politics in
Thailand. Copenhagen: NIAS Press

Week 14 Student Presentations 22 Nov. 2017

Week 15 Student Presentations 29 Nov. 2017