Study On The Process Of Democratization In Thailand

enerally, democratization refers to the process lead to democratic institutional arrangements and democratic values. As more and more countries have entered into or claimed to the list of democratic countries, the studies of democratization have become one of the hottest topics of politics. With the differences in politics, economy and history, most countries choose different roads to achieve democracy. Accordingly, many scholars hold varied perspectives. So far, there are three perspectives in the research of democratization: modernization theory, political transition theory and structure theory. The author believes that although democracy is mainly a political issue, it is in close relation to the country's history, culture, economy and other aspects, so, merely rely on a single factor alone can not explain the complex phenomena in the process of democratization. Only to combine all factors can ensure a complete understanding of democratization. Therefore, this article has taken economic development - social structure- social capital - political culture methods, also called "the four integrated research methods", to discuss the process of democratization in Thailand.After the 1932 coup, parliamentary constitutional monarchy was established in Thailand. But, Thai political democratization process frequently interrupted in military coups, which fully describes the tortuous political democratization in Thailand. Since 1960s, Thai economy has gone through three stages:import substitution, export-oriented and coordinated development. Due to the implementation of effective policies and measures by the Government in order to promoting economic development, Thai economy has maintained rapid growth. However, political democratization in Thailand is not a direct result of economic modernization. Polarization between rich and poor domestic of and serious imbalance regional economic development make the positive meaning of democracy seriously limited. The weakening power of military junta, the growing strength of commercial and industrial sectors, the consciousness of political participation between peasant class and the advocating of democracy in intellectuals, demonstrate that the changes of social structure of Thailand has brought some supports to the political democratization. But, social capital Reserved by patron system can not be called a favorable support to democratization in Thailand. Also, King worship, Buddhist beliefs and authoritarian elements of Thai political culture can not give favorable conditions to democratization. All these reasons led to Thailand's fragile democracy. To reach a political goal of democracy and political stability, Thailand must continue to promote economic development, bridging the urban-rural gap and regional disparities, reverse the tendency of polarization and social tear; improve the system of political parties, promote the generation of national political parties through legislation and the reform of parliamentary electoral system, make political parties to get rid of the shackles of "power politics" and "money politics" and truly become an effective channel of interests integration, expression and political participation; make efforts to promote the nationalization of the military and military professionalism, progressively realize the exit of military from socio-economic sectors and government departments, eliminate the impact of military intervention on national democracy; expand political participation step by step, improve the supervision mechanism, transform Buddhism so as to foster democratic political culture, and gradually eliminate the authoritarian grip of political democratization.