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Asian Review

Publication Date

2006-01-01

Abstract

After 1973, the Thai student movement was limited and weakened by several right-wing movements that collectively operated as counter-movements. This paper explores the factors and processes that account for the emergence and success of these counter-movements. The impact of the student movement, the changing political rules, and the incapacity of the Thai elite to employ old tactics to crush the student movement created critical conditions for a counter-movement to mobilize. Such conditions, however, cannot guarantee success. The success of the right-wing movements resulted from three factors: 1) effective organization and framing; 2) fragmentation of authority; and 3) state inaction. This Thai case suggests, in contrast to existing arguments in democratization literature, that it was not the radicalization of the progressive movements alone that was responsible for the failure of democracy but the complex if manipulated interaction between them, right-wing movements, and the state.

DOI

10.58837/CHULA.ARV.19.1.5

First Page

101

Last Page

134

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Asian Studies Commons

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