Shifts in the establishment’s support base are driving the Thai democracy movement. That sets the current moment apart.

However, establishment backers adamantly believed in the legitimacy of the constitutional monarchy under Bhumipol, and for many of them, military coups and dictatorships helped to improve the country’s democracy by removing deeply flawed, corrupt elected governments.

In the past, many Red Shirts and other Thais that held critical views of the establishment desired reforms of both the military and monarchy but remained silent on the issue given the massive symbolic power of the monarchy under Bhumipol.

For some proponents of electoral authority, the Thai middle and upper classes were seen as obstacles to democratization because of their staunch royalism and support for military intervention in the past. While the state currently appears staunchly conservative, even anachronistic, Thai society has never looked more ready to move away from its traditional national model centered on the military-monarchy alliance and push the country on a more democratic path.

This article was written by James Row

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