A historical analysis of the basis for national unity in Thailand

Abstract

Until very recently, Thailand has appeared not to share many of the problems that social scientists have identified in other developing countries. While other countries have seemed plagued with disunity, the surface of Thai society has appeared unruffled. And this has been explained by the uniqueness of Thai culture. Only now is the notion of a stable and culturally homogeneous Thai state being shaken. Challenges to the power of the state have emerged both at its centre in Bangkok and at its geographical peripheries. Those at its centre are exemplified by the popular overthrowal of the Thanon-Prapas regime in 1973; those at its periphery by the Malay secessionist movement, the communist movements and the minority problems in areas far removed from Bangkok.