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The Thai Rak Thai party and elections in North-eastern Thailand

Abstract Thaksin Shinawatra's electoral success, through the Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party, has led to a debate: was the party's electoral landslide based on the appeal of its policies or the power of money? On one side of the debate, the party's success was seen to result from its policies that reflected the interests of widely divergent sectors of the electorate. On the other side, TRT was held to be no different from “old-style” political parties that relied on money politics (vote buying, buying members of parliament and other kinds of patronage). This article explores the nature of TRT's successes and failures by examining the operation of TRT in north-eastern Thailand. It is argued that it is wrong to single out policies or money as a source of TRT's success because the party relied on both strategies to win elections.