ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the recent changes in the Thai polity and the growing tension between bureaucratic power and the emergence of new local-level businessmen-politicians. The decentralization of power to provincial and subdistrict representative bodies has been more gradual and has been held back by resistance from the provincial administration. The bureaucracy, in its military and civilian components, controlled the Thai state and its apparatus and Chinese and Sino Thai business leaders were obliged to seek the patronage of these elite to protect and further their business interests. Compared to many states, in particular in Africa and in contrast to Cambodia, the Thai state is extremely strong and has effective reach into all provinces and districts; no matter how far they are from Bangkok. Civil administration outside urban areas is concentrated at the provincial level: no regional apparatus exists. The Provincial Administrative Organization (PAO) is a body designed to facilitate democratic decentralization at the provincial level.
