ABSTRACT
Thailand guaranteed universal suffrage for women and men before most other Asian countries. Since then there have been seventeen more elections. From this, one might conclude that Thais are deeply committed to democracy. But the fact is that fully 80 percent of the time since 1932 Thailand has been ruled by undemocratic regimes dominated by the army. Thai villagers, like rural people all over Southeast Asia, live in a social web of patron-client relationships. During the democratic interlude, ordinary citizens had participated in politics for the first time and had acquired some new values. Thailand has a generally good record of protecting its citizens' civil liberties, and most Thais rarely complain about government oppression except during the most extreme periods of dictatorship. If Thai democracy is not to prove ephemeral, economic growth must continue. Its score on the United Nations' Human Development Index has risen every year.
