| Publication |
2008.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
This article investigates the political attitudes of Thai citizens, who have been exposed to a harsh political climate in recent years. Two questions we address here are: (a) how people perceived the quality of governance under the Thaksin administration and the subsequent provisional military government, and (b) what impacts, if any, the populist style of politics as well as the military coup have had on the political beliefs of the Thai population. The statistical analysis based on AsiaBarometer Survey data locates a plunge in public perception that occurred during the period between the Thaksin era and the military government, but it also reveals that the difference is largely a product of inflated populist policies, and that people's commitment to a democratic system was already fragile before the coup
|