ABSTRACT
The majority of the political parties in Thailand have come into existence not because of money politics, which requires long-term development, nor because they form part of a prevailing myth of the ‘real’ mass bureaucratic notion. In fact, Thai political parties can be categorised as ‘electoral professional parties’ (Panebianco 1988: 264). A political party is run by a leader who aligns and identifies himself directly with voters and reaches out to them by using various forms of media and marketing tools (McCargo 1997: 130–1). This argument reflects the nature of politics in general and the formation of political parties across the globe; the political party as a ‘mass membership organisation’ has come to an end and westerners are increasingly ‘bowling alone’ (Putnam 2001). Examples of ‘mass membership parties’ are the socialist parties in Western Europe that evolved from a given historical context and have now been either disbanded or evolved into something quite different.
