ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the mobilization of the lower classes as a force for democracy stems from various factors. It surveys aggregate statistics on inequality in Thailand and the pro-poor populist policies launched by Thaksin to tackle the uneven distribution of income. The chapter describes the campaign to destroy Thaksin and TRT begun with the 2006 coup and continued through judicial intervention and rogue street mobilization by middle-class groups. It analyzes the rise of the Red Shirt movement in response to the coup and the power plays of the Bangkok elite. Although Thailand is considered one of the more successful newly-industrializing countries having attained some of the highest growth rates in the developing world in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it has in the process become the most unequal country in Southeast Asia. Thus, it is hard to imagine how Thailand can return to a democracy defined by middle-class elites and royalists now as democracy has been fundamentally altered.
