ABSTRACT
This chapter draws upon recent and exemplary accounts of the nature of Thai modernity, power relations, culture and polity, and explores Thailand as a case study of political factors impeding socioeconomic development. First, an overview of the state of Thailand is presented. Second, a critical examination of problems in western theory in understanding Thailand will be adumbrated. Third, three myths of Thailand as unique and exceptional are followed by an in-depth focus on five problem-spaces: the problem of Thai style anti-politics; schizoid splitting and the colonial formation of truth and aesthetic power in Thailand's alternative modernity; subjection and rule through the political development of democratization; 1932 and the common people; King Thaksin, or 1932 redux. Sino-Thai capitalists ride on the monarchy's coattails and economic development is caught in the force-field of Thai power and politics that sets the parameters of equality, growth and income distribution.
