Reluctant populists: Learning populism in Thailand
| Author | Kevin Hewison |
| Published date | 01 September 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0192512117692801 |
| Date | 01 September 2017 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512117692801
International Political Science Review
2017, Vol. 38(4) 426 –440
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0192512117692801
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Reluctant populists: Learning
populism in Thailand
Kevin Hewison
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Kyoto University, Japan
Abstract
Almost all popular and academic assessments of Thaksin Shinawatra label him a populist, with his time
in power characterized by populism. Through an assessment of conceptual accounts of populism and a
discussion of Thaksin’s political campaigning and his prime ministership, it is argued that this characterization
is inaccurate. While electorally popular, Thaksin’s populism was slow to develop. Thaksin’s emergence as
a populist reflected a configuration of political circumstances that forced him to rely increasingly on the
support of an electoral base made up of the relatively less well-off. In failing to account for the development
of Thaksin as a populist, an important element of Thaksin’s politics and of populism as a form of politics is
missed. Thaksin was made a populist by elite opposition, military coup and the political demands by the red
shirt mass movement wanting social and economic equality underpinned by electoral representation.
Keywords
Populism, Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, elites, political conflict
Introduction
There are two accepted truths regarding Thailand’s recent politics. First, Thailand has failed to
embed a functioning electoral politics. While counts vary, there have been 12 successful military
coups since 1932 when the absolute monarchy was overthrown. Following the latest putsch in
2014, the military crafted the country’s 20th post-1932 constitution. The 2006 and 2014 military
interventions reflected an elite desire to eradicate the political influence of Thaksin Shinawatra,
whose affiliated political parties have won every national election since 2000. The second truth,
and the focus of this article, is that Thaksin was a populist, supported by the rural poor.
Due to the variation in the situations identified with the emergence of populist politics, from the
political right to left, in economically advanced and developing nations and in democracies and
non-democracies, there have been efforts to determine populism’s core characteristics (see
Canovan, 1981; Hadiz and Chryssogelos, 2017; Taggart, 2000). Developing these characteristics
Corresponding author:
Kevin Hewison, Department of Asian Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Email: khewison@unc.edu
692801IPS0010.1177/0192512117692801International Political Science ReviewHewison
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