Religion, political parties, and Thailand's 2019 election: Cosmopolitan royalism and its rivals


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Abstract

jats:titleAbstract</jats:title>jats:pThe political salience of religious issues and identities has been rising in Thailand, and this is increasingly reflected in electoral politics. Thai political parties seek to position themselves in relation to struggles over the location of the ideological centre of gravity, which has pitted defenders of the religio-political status quo—a monarchy-centred civil-religious nationalism—against Buddhist nationalists, on the one hand, and proponents of greater secularization, on the other. In the 2019 general election, political entrepreneurs ‘particized’ these religio-political differences, which has far-reaching implications for majority-minority relations, to an extent that appears unprecedented in recent Thai political history. This argument is developed through an analysis of the platforms, policies, and rhetoric put forward by political parties contesting the election, which concluded an almost five-year period of direct military rule. This analysis suggests we need to pay greater attention to the role of political parties and electoral competition in maintaining and contesting the secular settlement in Thailand.</jats:p>

Publication Date
2023
Online Publication Date
2022-11-15
Acceptance Date
2022-01-10
Keywords
Thailand, religion, nationalism, secularism, political parties
Journal Title
Modern Asian Studies
Journal ISSN
0026-749X
1469-8099
Volume Title
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Sponsorship
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Societal Challenges (770562)
European Union’s Horizon 2020 Program, CRISEA (“Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia”), grant agreement No. 770562/Europe in a changing world, Engaging together globally