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Goodbye to the security state: Thailand and ideological change

Political reform in Thailand has too often been conceived in institutional terms. Do political parties function in the right manner? Is the cabinet focused on the national interest? Do the new checks and balances work? Not surprisingly, the answers to such questions are often negative. Interestingly, an often neglected aspect of analysing the progress of reform is ideological change, which was, and remains, a significant objective of the movement seeking reform in Thailand. If we look at this aspect, we might come to see the progress of reform differently. This article examines the nature of ideological change by surveying key state agencies. The first section introduces generalised aspects of the ideological shift that Thailand has undergone during the years of democratic opening. However, instead of relating ideological change to "democratization," it is proposed that we think in terms of processes whereby political actors become caught up in, or subject to, elite visions of democracy, which are essentially and necessarily dominative what I have called, elsewhere, "democrasubjection" (Connors 2003: 5-26). The second section briefly discusses shifts in the nature of the Thai state up to the current Thaksin administration (2001-). Finally, a survey of ideological shifts in terms of culture, democracy, participation and security is offered. The broad claim advanced in this article is that liberalism continues to make significant ideological advances in Thailand, notwithstanding countervailing pressures related to the economic nationalism and authoritarian political tendencies of the current Thaksin administration.