Public Lecture Announcement

The M.A. Programme

in International Development Studies,

Faculty of Political Science

Chulalongkorn University

  Presents

Good Governance Versus Populist Democracy: Thailand and the Phillippines Compared

A Public Lecture by

Mark R. Thompson

Professor of Political Science, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany

Date & Time: Wednesday March 5th, 2008, 10:00-12:00

Location: Political Science Alumni Room

Kasem Udhayanin Building (Political Science Building 3)

Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

This lecture is free and open to the public

For further information, please contact the MAIDS Programme

Tel: 02-218-7313 or E-mail: brennen.j@chula.ac.th

ABSTRACT

Both Thailand and the Philippines democratized "early" from the perspective of modernization theory that suggests democratic transitions will occur only after society becomes largely middle class. Rather, big business has been the key "strategic" group in the transition in both countries, with a small urban middle class as a junior partner. "Bourgeois" democracy in both countries has been plagued by instability, however. Both countries' democracies are riven by conflict between elite activists who mobilize protests in capital cities and populist politicians who win support from rural-dominated electorates. Urban bourgeois activististsresorted to insurrection to overthrow charismatic populist leaders caught in corruption scandals typical of patrimonial democracies. They legitimized such extra-constitutional practices as necessary to implement bureaucratic-rational notions of good governance. Elite activists had earlier opposed authoritarian regimes less out of democratic conviction than as guardians of good governance they claimed these dictatorships had betrayed. Weak reformist governments, the prevalence of money politics, and the rise of populist leaders later led them to turn the good governance discourse against democratically elected leaders.