The middle class and democracy in Southeast Asia

As tens of thousands of supporters of the “No Election” movement poured into the streets of Bangkok in early 2014, prompting a near shutdown of one of Southeast Asia’s busiest metropolises, many begin to wonder whether democracy has completely failed in Thailand. The prominence of the middle class in this anti-election uprising has added to the now-growing evidence of the middle class’s antidemocratic behavior. Thailand joins the recent cases of democratic reversals that have been on the rise among the Third Wave countries (Diamond 2008). Diamond notes that one in every five democracies since the mid-1970s had experienced a breakdown; and of the 29 democratic collapses during the period, 17 occurred in the last decade alone. ¹