ABSTRACT
The new rich in Thailand have invariably been described as a new middle class. That this new rich middle class was responsible for the democratic uprising of 1992 goes virtually unquestioned.1 Yet, there has been surprisingly little debate on just what constitutes the middle class in Thailand. Rather, the middle class is left undefined, as if somehow everyone knows just what it is and all that is left is to determine how it functions. In fact, the Thai word for middle class is a direct translation from English, literally meaning ‘people of the middle level’, which has only recently spread beyond the academic community, and is still unknown to many Thais. In this chapter, I discuss the new rich in reference to variable constructions of the Thai middle class. I will describe some of the ways the middle class is being constructed to include the new rich. I will also examine the role of the middle class in politics, particularly since the rise of the new rich.
