Thailand's Crisis

Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker

2 ideas

1. Crash legitimized the 1997 reform constitution

   A reform constitution drafted by an elected assembly had been stalled by politicians whose power it curbed. The crash discredited that money-politics establishment and pushed Parliament to pass the charter in September 1997, adding independent watchdog agencies, an elected Senate, and new rights. Economic collapse thus opened a political window that reformers had been unable to force open on their own.

2. Economic crisis as national political struggle

   Treating the crash as a generic emerging-market episode hides its domestic politics: struggles between old Bangkok banking families, provincial politicians, technocrats, and new social movements. Seen this way, globalization is contested locally. The crisis triggered localist and 'sufficiency economy' counter-currents and a more assertive civil society that challenged both foreign prescriptions and domestic elites.

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