From The Perspective Of Political Participation:An Analysis Of Thailand Yellow Shirts Movement

In 2006,the "Yellow Shirts" started the struggle against Prime Minister Thaksin by organizing the anti-government rallies. Since then, in order to achieve their political demands and to overthrow the existing democratically elected government,they took big demonstrations rallies in the Bangkok street several times,causing a significant impact in Thailand’s economic,political,social.The research topic of this thesis is under the perspective of political participation,concerning the change of political participation personnel structure and political demands of the "Yellow Shirts" during several anti-government rallies.And the author also considering a deeper question that "Yellow Shirts" represent Thailand’s middle class,but in which reasons lead their political consciousness from liberty to conservative.This thesis by means of the literature analysis,historical analysis and other research techniques,borrowing the political participation theory.There are three main periods according to the development of the "Yellow Shirts" in time sequence.It includes the "Yellow Shirts" against Thaksin government period (early times),and Samak,Somchai government period (highly times) and Yingluck government (duration times).From the background,the main members and their political demands,the effect on Thailand’s economic and society to analysis the "Yellow Shirts" social movements in political participation.The causes of "Yellow Shirts" movement in each period are different,so the main members and their political demands are also different,they affected the political situation in Thailand profoundly.Finally,according to the movement of the discussion,the logic of the "Yellow Shirts" movements have been summed up:Firstly,these movements have large scale,and participants have strong economic and political power in Thailand, making a great influence on the political developments in Thailand.Secondly,with the in-depth development of the movements,the members’ political demands became deeper, they demanded for anti-government at the beginning and then they wanted to reform political system,it reflects the participants’ political consciousness have been improved. Another research the reasons of the progressive regression among the "Yellow Shirts" which stand for middle class in Thailand.There are three main causes.Firstly,their economic interests have been impaired,bringing the relative deprivation in psyche; Secondly,natural dual attributes of the middle class:conservative and revolutionary; Thirdly,the traditional culture of Thailand,traditional hierarchical and asylum system still have an important position in Thailand society today.The research viewpoint and the object of study have some innovations.Domestic and foreign research on Thai politics usually from aspects such as economy,politics, culture,the royal family, the army to explore, to specialize in a social movement of Thailand is not easy to found.From analysis the social movements,in fact,it’s obvious to see the political demands of different groups,reflecting a country’s political problems, providing certain reference and basis for formulating future policies.