Civil Society and Democratization: Social Movements in NortheastThailand (review)

This book presents a progressive scholarship pertinent to contemporary Thai politics. It de-centres modern politics in Thailand as a field of studies by putting civil social movements first. It also reveals the true face of Thai democracy beyond its ailing parliamentary system. Casting ballots and institutionalized politics are real for some, but the most meaningful measurement of Thailand’s democratic progress is the activist battles on the street and down to the village heartland. Drawing on key theoretical approaches concerning civil society and democratization, the book challenges both a conventional paradigm emphasizing the elite-centred process of democratization and overwhelming scholarly attention paid to the elite as well as urban-based middle class as the powerful negotiators and makers of Thailand’s “minimal democracy”. It further interprets the political activism from the periphery, as a grass-root struggle for citizenship rights, which are the most fundamental ingredient for accountable and transparent democracy. Altogether, the book strongly contributes to both critically grounded political science and the studies of civic social movements at the turn of twenty-first century Thailand.

Somchai Phatharathananuth (2006) argues that while Thai politics is dominated by money and the exclusive influence of the self-interest ruling elite, there is a glimmer of hope for civic democracy in a number of politically active social movements beyond Bangkok. In the relatively open and transitory period of Thai politics between post-May 1992 and the birth of “elected capitalist absolutism” (Chaiwat Satha-Anand 2004) led by Thaksin Shinnawatra in early 2000s, the struggles of “the right to have rights” (p. 1) as demonstrated by the Small-Scale Farmers’ Assembly of Isan (SSFAI) and the Assembly of the Poor (AOP) are his showcases. With insight from his long experience working as an academic activist with these grass-root movements and engaged in ethnographic fieldwork, he sets forth a thesis that “the capacity of self-organization independent from the state” (p. 210) is one of the most important elements in nurturing accountable and transparent democracy in Thailand.

Civil society is relocated to the countryside and powered by the social movements of marginalized farmers based in Northeastern Thailand (also known as Isan), a region with a long history of political radicalism. Somchai Phatharathananuth (2006) recounts the eventful struggles and fates of SSFAI and AOP, arguably two of the most active civil society organizations since the defeat of popular movements in October 1976 and the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) in the early 1980s. He supports his central argument with the following features. Firstly, he provides deep accounts of the active life of SSFAI and AOP, especially through series of interview with their leaders, numerous participation in their activities, and good documentation of media reports. The behind-the-scene reports of power struggles betwen their leaders are particularly remarkable. They help set the book apart from the many unpolished or romanticized views of farmers’ movements that are available. Secondly, he systematically locates these social movements within the historical context of political radicalism adopted by the peasants in the Northeastern Thailand. Although his accounts rely on secondary sources and repeat some dominant discourse, they suffice to provide backdrops to the rise of the civic movements in question. Lastly, he interprets peasant struggles within the “big picture” of the realities of post-peasant and “post-development” (Keyes 2002) situations. It is important to recognize that members of SSFAI and AOP (and other Isan villagers) are post-peasantry villagers, who are caught up in global processes of modernization and democratization.

While I largely agree with the author’s central thesis and overall approach to provincialize Thai democratization, I have my own list of comments to make. Civil society presented in this book is defined for both generalized and specific purposes, but does not cover some other localized or Thai-ized varieties of civil society. Civil society as a concept and a political practice is transplanted onto the fertile soil of Thai political culture...