ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Thailand. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Thailand. Thaksin's Thai Loves Thai (TRT) won the elections despite a December 2000 ruling by Thailand's new National Counter Corruption Commission that Thaksin had deliberately falsified wealth disclosure statements as a cabinet minister in 1997. The Thai Loves Thai party's near parliamentary majority, and Thaksin's financial clout as Thailand's wealthiest businessman arguably made him the country's strongest-ever civilian leader. Thailand's poorly trained police frequently are implicated in wrongful killings and rights violations against criminal suspects and detainees. Officers at times kill armed drug traffickers and other criminal suspects while apprehending them.
