The Military Leader’s Ideas on Politics in Democratic System From the Uprising on October 14, 1973 to the Coup d’Etat on February 23,1991.

Abstract

This research is aimed at analyzing the military leader’s ideas on politics in democratic system from the October 14, 1973 uprising to the Coup d’Etat on February 23, 1991. A large number of literary works were used for this study. The analysis had found out that since 1973 it is more difficult for the military to use solely coercion force to secure their ruling position but they had to depend more on the ideological mechanism to win the consent of various interest groups. The military had to create new symbols and new myths to cope with the new socio-economic formation and had to accept “democratic” form and practice as a source of their legitimation. But as far as they were imposed by Sakdina (Feudalism) ideology, conservatism, and militarism; their ideas on democracy was deviant from that western democratic doctrine and was characterized by the so-called “Democracy Thai Style”. The essence of “Democracy Thai Style” in Sarit regime wad used as the yardstick to analyze the military leader’s ideas on democratic system after 1973, especially the two important groups the “Young Turk” group and the “Democratic Soldiers” group. Between the two groups, the Democratic Soldiers group’s ideas on democracy was more progressive and socialist-oriented that it antagonized those privileged interest groups. This conflict led to the dissolvement of the group around 1980’s. Thai democratic parliamentary system is eventually in the control of the privileged new middle class. Even when the military led coup d’Etat on, February 23, 1991, they had to depend on the new middle class to run the government and had to accept parliamentary democracy in a year later.