Paul Chambers

Naresuan University · College of ASEAN Community Studies

In 2019, Thailand represents the case of an Asian country overshadowed by authoritarian forces, though it has time and again experienced attempts at democratization. This paper argues that democracy remains deficient in Thailand because, though there have been enormous advances in terms of the economy, social improvements and state stability, polit...

In Cambodia, land-grabbing has become a crisis of enormous proportions. A great number of people have been robbed of their land in violent circumstances. Across Cambodia, large-scale land disputes in urban and rural areas are widespread, and communities face land tenure insecurity as a result. This chapter chronicles how land grabbing in Cambodia,...

This study examines authoritarianism in Thailand since the 2014 putsch as a challenge to good governance. It argues that any trends in Thai democratization have always been absorbed by the interests of Thailand’s “parallel state,” as led by the monarchy and military. When elected governments have challenged aristocratic interests, military rollback...

Thailand's transformation from absolute monarchy in 1932 to military dictatorship in 2017 has witnessed 13 successful coups d'état across 84 years. The Thai military (as supported by aristocracy) is a principal obstacle to achieving lasting democracy. Examples of its anti-democratic behaviour include its crushing of protesters in 1973, 1976, 1992 a...

This paper argues that conventional notions of Thailand’s military must be re-examined because they misrepresent the military’s role in politics. Instead of examining its material interests, one must also scrutinise the power and legitimacy of Thailand’s armed forces in terms of its connection to monarchy over time. The relationship between monarch...

This study examines the evolution of political party finance in Thailand, which has been crucial for party development. The nature of party finance cannot be examined separately from the country's democratization given that the military early on dominated political parties. At the same time, such financing traditionally depended upon either regiona...

This study examines the evolution of civilian control in Cambodia and its impact upon that country’s security sector reform efforts. It argues that Cambodia has witnessed a historically entrenched path dependence of civil-military relations, whereby ruling personalities and parties have consecutively dominated subservient, authoritarian militaries....

Civilian control of the military is a sine qua non for democratic consolidation. In the Philippines, the armed forces have played a major role in the country’s authoritarian past. Yet, despite the advent of democracy, vestiges of authoritarianism have persisted. This chapter analyzes the successes and failures in the efforts of Philippine civilians...

In contemporary Thailand, achieving effective civilian control of the armed forces is a daunting challenge. The country's long series of military coups are one outcome of the operational independence generally enjoyed by the military. In most cases, these military interventions have sought to support the political ambitions of the palace and its ne...

In December 1990, civil protests against the regime of President General Hossain Mohammad Ershad brought an end to almost 14 years of military rule in Bangladesh. In the two decades since Ershad’s downfall, there have been regular elections and power has alternated between the center-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by Khaleda Zia, the...

The existing literature on civil—military relations proposes a great number of hypotheses, theorems, and ‘partial theories’ (see Kennedy & Louscher, 1991) that aim to explain civilian control over the military and how it is created. Samuel Huntington’s theory of civilian control, outlined in The Soldier and the State (1957), has long been considere...

In the 25 years since President Ferdinand Marcos was ousted from office in February 1986, democracy in the Philippines has remained unconsolidated. In fact, democratic quality deteriorated so severely under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (2001–2010) that Freedom House took the country off its list of ‘electoral democracies’ (Freedom House, 2011a...

On 17 August 1988, Pakistan’s military dictator, General Zia-ul-Haq, was killed in a plane crash. After Zia’s death, the military formulated the conditions for a handover of power to a civilian government and eventually initiated a political transition. Following parliamentary elections in November 1988, Benazir Bhutto of the Pakistan Peoples Party...

On 15 July 1987, the government of the Republic of China (ROC) lifted martial law, ending 40 years of emergency rule and initializing democratization. Today, 25 years later, Taiwan is a consolidated democracy, supported by a lively civil society and a strong consensus on democratic values in both the elites and the mass public (Bertelsmann Foundati...

In Thailand, the military has been involved in politics for most of the twentieth century. It ruled the country either through personal dictators or within the framework of institutionalized military rule from the 1930s to 1973, with only a brief interregnum from 1944 to 1947 (Yawnghwe, 1997). In the 1970s, a process of political transformation beg...

When the New Order regime of President Suharto collapsed in May 1998, the prospects for achieving civilian control seemed bleak due to several factors: the economy had been crippled by the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, violence had flared up all across the archipelago, and there had been a long history of political participation, violent repressi...

The presidential elections of 1987 reinstated democracy in South Korea after three decades of military rule. The election, however, did not result in a clear break with the authoritarian past. Newly elected President Roh Taewoo was a retired army general who had been a leading member of the old regime. The process of democratic deepening and consol...

Politics in any society involves the management of coercive power. This creates a paradox that Peter Feaver describes as the ‘civil—military problematique’: This coercive power may take the form of a military organization established to protect the interests of one political group against the predations of others. Once established, however, the coe...

The focus of this book is on the contours, causes, and consequences of civilian control of the military in democratizing Asia. Based on our reading of democratic theory, we have identified civil—military relations as a crucial component for the consolidation and deepening of nascent democracies: only if the military is under the firm control of civ...

In the Philippines, the armed forces have played a major role in the country's authoritarian past. Yet despite the advent of democracy, vestiges of authoritarianism have continued to linger. This article analyzes the successes and failures in the efforts of Philippine civilians to gain authority over their military in five areas of political decisi...

Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) of Thai garment industry and the differences between firms with and without OFDI are explored by interview and survey during June and December 2008. Efficiency seeking is the most important OFDI motive, while labour shortage and general cost pressure are the most important push factors. Incentives, capacity...

Since 1992, Thailand's young democracy has sought to ensure civilian control over its military. Yet since the 2006 coup, the military has become a powerful political actor and Thai democracy has eroded. As such, institutionalizing civilian control has become particularly challenging. This article examines civil-military relations in Thailand and ar...

This article integrates insights from historical institutionalism and arguments of strategic action in order to develop a new conceptual and theoretical approach to explaining changes in civil-military relations. In order to enforce civilian control over the military in new democracies, civilian decision-makers need to “break” stabilizing mechanism...

Establishing civilian control of the military is an important challenge for new democracies. Surprisingly, however, there is no established conceptual framework for understanding what civilian control entails and how exactly weak or absent civilian control impinges upon democratic quality. This article addresses these lacunae, developing a new conc...

Like other young Asian democracies, Thailand has seen its military play a leading role in the country's authoritarian past. Yet despite the advent of democracy, vestiges of authoritarianism have continued to linger. This study analyzes relations of civilians and soldiers with regard to their balance of decision-making power in the case of Thailand,...

It is consensus in the democratization literature that civilian control of the military is a necessary ingredient for democracy and democratic consolidation. However, there is considerable disagreement on what civilian control of the military exactly entails and there is a lack of solid theoretical arguments for how weak or absent civilian control...

Thailand's current partisan turmoil is paralleling growing authoritarianism and democratic decay. This article examines contemporary Thai civil-military relations, the state of armed forces unity, and potential outcomes. It argues that amid heightened political uncertainty and diminished democracy, the only surety today is an enhanced role for Thai...

In democracies throughout the world, intra-party factions manifest themselves in parties and governments. Formal and informal institutions have, however, proved crucial in managing factionalism. This is especially true in Thailand’s emerging parliamentary democracy where the management of factionalism has become a major objective for Thai parties....

This survey aims to analyze the state of intra-party democracy (IPD) in Thailand. IPD is defined as a characteristic of the distribution of decision-making power among members and leaders within a political party along the two principal dimensions of inclusiveness and decentralization. The amount of organizational details that could be used to desc...

Review of the edited volume: Funston, John (ed.) (2009), Divided Over Thaksin: Thailand’s Coup and Problematic Transition, Chiangmai: Silkworm Books, Singapore: ISEAS. ISBN 978-981-230-961-7, 203 pages.

Frontier friction has been a recurring phenomenon in much of the world, including in South and Southeast Asia. Yet the social construction of antagonistic border perceptions offers lessons about how not to frame a country's views of its neighbors. Though boundary disputes in South Asia are currently much more muted than in the past, this investigat...

In Thailand’s emerging democracy, the Senate has played an often underestimated role. This study analyzes Thailand’s Upper House, examining its historical evolution until 2009. In particular, it focuses on the following questions. What innovations did the 1997 Constitution bring to the Senate? How and why was the Senate adjusted under the 2007 cons...

In Thailand’s emerging democracy, the Senate has played an often underestimated role. This study analyzes Thailand’s Upper House, examining its historical evolution until 2009. In particular, it focuses on the following questions. What innovations did the 1997 Constitution bring to the Senate? How and why was the Senate adjusted under the 2007 cons...

In 1994, the opening of the Friendship Bridge commenced an apparent thawing of ties between Thailand and Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR). Out of deep socio-historical antagonisms and Cold War acrimony, the two countries seemed suited now for amity. But amity has continued to be edgy. Meanwhile, other countries in the region—China and Vietnam...

American missionaries have been an influential group of scholars-teachers in Thailand. Protestant missionaries built strong ties with the Siamese monarchy through teaching and tutoring them. This study examines the influence of United States Protestant (Presbyterian) missionaries on Siamese and US policies toward the Kingdom of Lanna (present-day n...

Did Thailand's multiple parties and factions influence cabinet and coalition durability in the period 1979 to 2001? If so, which one - parties or factions - was the more significant? Taking a Transaction Costs Analysis approach, this article addresses these questions and argues that intra-party factions, as the building blocks of Thai parliamentary...

I am flattered by Michael Nelson's interest in my article (“Evolving To ward What? Parties, Factions, and Coalition Behavior in Thailand Today,” Journal of East Asian Studies 5, no. 3). He takes issue with my discussion of four levels of parliamentary games: the arenas of lead party in a coalition government versus lead party in the opposition camp...

The King Never Smiles is the third book (to be banned) on the life of Thailand's King Bhumipol Adulyadej published by a non-Thai. The others are Rayne Kruger's The Devil's Discus and William Stevenson's The Revolutionary King. Written by a journalist who resided in the Kingdom for thirteen years, it is exceptionally well written and reflects a deep...

Intra-party factions, alongside the parties that host them, have been major players in Thai parliamentary politics over the past 20 years. Indeed, at least until Thaksin Shinawatra's 2001 electoral landslide, factionalism was so prominent that most Thai political parties could be seen as mere mechanisms within which power was shared and competed fo...

How important have Thai parties and intraparty factions been in Thailand's fast-evolving democracy? What role do they play today, especially since the enactment of the latest constitution? What has accounted for the fragmentation in Thailand's party systems and coalitions? How did Thai democracy allow for the rise to power of Thaksin Shinawatra? Th...

:Three years ago, the United States and Thailand seemed headed for a more strained and distant relationship. U.S. policy-makers viewed Bangkok as increasingly insignificant while Thailand sought to move out of its traditional U.S. orbit and increasingly balance the influence of Washington with China, Europe, and the Muslim world. Yet, since 2001, t...

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, June, 1991.