The Coup One Year on: Thailand's "Ugly German" Constitution. Asia Policy Brief 2015/02, May 2015

A year after becoming a military dictatorship once more, Thailand’s new constitution – the 20th since 1932 – is taking shape. In it, the arch-conservative charter drafters stipulate that future elections will be conducted using a variant of Germany’s mixed-member proportional representation system. Their hope is that the resulting coalition governments will prevent future administrations from turning into populist one-man shows. The drafters may be hoping in vain

Asian Middle Classes - Drivers of Political Change? Asia Policy Brief 2014/06, November 2014

Asia watchers have been kept exceptionally busy by recent political developments in the region. An unprecedented landslide victory in India’s general elections, pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, close elections in Indonesia, a coup in Thailand – the list goes on. As unrelated as these events appear, analysts may find a missing link among a social group that is currently exploding in numbers: Asia’s middle classes. Often discussed simply in terms of its economic potential, Asia’s middle-income population is also flexing its political muscle. A closer look at its influence throughout the region in recent months seems to confirm for the field of politics what economists have known for some time: The rise of the Asian middle classes constitutes one of the most fundamental transformations of our time. The consequences remain to be seen

From Grassroots to Government: A Study of Recent Green Party Building in the Philippines

This article explores the history, ideology and political strategy of the Partido Kalikasan (PK, Nature Party), a grassroots-based green party in the Philippines. The PK was established in 2003 but its development is constrained by the lack of resources and strategic differences internal to the party and by the distinct history and setting of civil society and politics in the archipelago. Yet, the mere presence of an emerging green party in a relatively poor country like the Philippines puts into question the postmaterialist thesis of Ronald Inglehart. It seems that the environment is more than a “quality of life” issue, especially in a country where vast sections of the population still struggle to meet their basic needs

Modern monarchs and democracy: Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej and Juan Carlos of Spain

The history of democracy is typically a history of struggle against monarchs and other such autocrats. The elevation of one person over others by virtue of blood and birth has come to be seen as anachronistic; yet some monarchies have managed to survive to this day. This paper analyses two examples of the uneasy coalition between popular sovereignty and royal leadership that is constitutional monarchy. Whereas Juan Carlos of Spain has been described as having steered Spain away from dictatorship, Bhumibol of Thailand has come under scrutiny for allegedly lacking a principled approach to democracy. I argue that structural as much as personal factors influenced the ways in which the two monarchies were legitimised – one by positively responding to the modern aspirations of the king’s subjects, giving him a “forward legitimacy,” the other by revitalising the king’s traditional charisma and opting for “backward legitimacy.

[Aerial photography from NTS Map Sheet 072E02 - Calib Coulee, Alberta, 06-06-1962] : [Flightline YC511-Photo 141]

072E02 - Calib Coulee, AlbertaThis content is in the public domain in Canada and can be used without permission