Innovation of Democracy Reform Model under the Sovereign Governance of Four Balancing Powers in Thailand

Abstract

Before the Siamese revolution in 1932, the Supreme Council of State was established by H.M. King Prajadhipok (RAMA VII) in 1925 as holistic policy and legislative advisory council of all State affairs in order to well prepare carefully a peaceful transformation from the regime of absolute monarchy into constitutional monarchy. This Siamese monarch heritage of Dharmaraja governance has inspired and enlightened the researcher to study in searching for the renaissance of the Supreme Council of State as a new model of democracy reform innovation based upon the sovereign governance of balancing four pillars of State powers. Among many countries around the world, Thailand had long been faced with tremendous problems of representative democracy in the application of the British model of Westminster parliamentary system since 1932. As there are today at least four principal models of representative democracy: British parliamentary system, American presidential system, French semi-presidential system, and German applied parliamentary system. The purpose of this research therefore is to find out an innovation of the fifth model called “Dhrammacracy semi-parliamentary system”, in which the separation of sovereign powers shall be based on balancing four State powers pillars: sovereign governance of the Supreme Council of State, legislative power of the Parliament, executive power of the Government, and judicial power of the Courts. This research applied thus a qualitative research methodology by documentary research and case study research methods for data collection and data analysis leading to the conclusion and recommendations of the research. The results of this research found that the innovation of democracy reform model of “Dhrammacracy semi-parliamentary system” shall be applied not only in Thailand, but also in any countries that faced with tremendous problems of majoritarian dictatorship of Parliament after the adoption of British model of Westminster parliamentary system. This research paper is a part of research report entitled “Thai Democracy Reform under the Framework of Draft Dhrammacracy Constitution”, with the supporting fund of Research Institute of Rangsit University in Thailand.