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8 - Thailand’s Democratic Moment

The Constitution of 1997

from Part II - Case Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2020

By
Tom Ginsburg
Edited by
Gabriel L. Negretto
Gabriel L. Negretto
Affiliation:
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
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Summary

This chapter describes the drafting of the 1997 Constitution and its impact on Thai democracy. It first provides some context of Thai political history. Next, it explains the forces which converged to produce the 1997 constitution-making process, the first to ever involve an elected drafting assembly. While the life of the constitution was tumultuous, culminating in its death at the age of nine in 2006, it has had a profound afterlife with significant effects on Thai democracy, and institutional legacies that have survived even in the authoritarian periods of 2006-2007 and 2014-2016. It thus shows how a democratic constitution-making process can have important institutional effects beyond its formal legal operation. At the same time, the transition to a new monarch in 2016 marks a major shift in the trajectory of the country, with negative implications for its democratic future.

Keywords

ThailandConstitutiondemocracy
Type
Chapter
Information
Redrafting Constitutions in Democratic Regimes
Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives
 , pp. 175 - 189
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

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