REVKJEWS - Siamese Heritage Protection Program

REVIEWS 141
Chapter III Course of Events-A brief description of political events and changes
in Thailand from the 1932 Revolution to the present time is presented here.
Chapter IV Political structure-This chapter analyzes the dynamic relationship
between the military leadership and bureaucratic structure, as well as the emergence
of "extrabureaucratic" elements in Thai society, such as political parties, professional
associations, academics, and labor groups, etc.
Chapter V Political Performance-This chapter focuses the analysis on the
October 1973 events and the democratic interregnum between 1974-1976. The reactions
after the 1976 coup d'etat is also analyzed.
Chapter VI External Involvement-This chapter analyzes Thai foreign relations
with respect to the Super powers, and the neighbouring ASEAN as well as Indochinese
countries.
Chapter VII Revolutionary Alternative-This chapter traces the evolution and
expansion of the communist movement in Thailand. The recent dilemma facing the
Communist Party of Thailand is also discussed.
Professor Girling's Thailand, Society and Politics is well-organized and well
written and also quite comprehensive in the coverage. The main theme of the book
seems to be based on his earlier work on "Conflict or Consensus?" Thai history is
seen here as having been "fashioned around consensus, based on traditional Thai values,
patterns of behavior, and institutions-in some aspects adapting to, and in others resisting,
the impact of change." (p. II) Such a consensus does not mean simply mutual
cooperation. In fact, clique rivalries among the leaders, such as those between Phao
and Sarit, are parts of the rules of the game or rather understandings, which form the
basis of the traditional Thai consensus.
Professor Girling also points out that this consensus is expressed through personality,
patronage, customary values, and the embodiment of all three-the bureaucracy,
where the relations between superior and subordinate, or '·patron-client" are the natural
form of interaction. These personal, reciprocal relationships cut across the "formal"
organizational structure of the modern centralized bureaucracy. Thai political system
as such "receives the symbolic support of the monarchy and the Buddhist hierarchy."
(p. 12).
This is the political order that only in the past two decades has been substantially
affected by the modernization and economic development. Professor Girling
correctly observes (p. 101) that "modernization in Thailand has taken the form of
uneven rural development, on the one hand, and business-bureaucratic partnership, on
the other, both within an international orbit of powerful strategic and market
forces." These forces create newly "aware" groups and movements, in this book
called "extrabureaucratic" elements, that no longer fit the traditional political system.