Public Lecture Announcement
The M.A. in
International Development Studies Programme,
Faculty of Political Science
Presents
The Rural Constitution and Everyday Politics of Elections in Northern Thailand
A Public Lecture by
Dr. Andrew Walker,
Anthropologist,
Research School of Pacific and
Asian Studies,
Australian National University.
Time: Friday, May 18th, 2007
10:00-12:00
Location: Conference Room 12, 2nd Floor,
Political Science Faculty Building 3
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: maids@chula.ac.th
The Rural Constitution and the Everyday Politics of Elections in Northern Thailand
ABSTRACT:
The Thai coup of 19 September 2006 derived ideological legitimacy from the view that the Thaksin government's electoral mandate was illegitimate because it had been "bought" from an unsophisticated and easily manipulated electorate. There is nothing new about this argument, nor its use in justifying military interference. Political commentators have regularly asserted that the Thai populace, and especially the rural populace, lacks the basic characteristics essential for a modern democratic citizenry. Accounts of the deficiencies of rural voters often focus on their parochialism, their lack of political sophistication, the vulnerability to vote buying and the influence of electoral canvassers (hua khanaen). In this paper I challenge this negative portrayal of rural electoral culture. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in northern Thailand, I argue that the everyday politics of elections is informed by a range of different electoral values that shape judgements about legitimate, and illegitimate, political power in electoral contexts. These local values can be usefully thought of as comprising a "rural constitution."
Guest Lecturer's Biography
Dr. Andrew Walker, BA (Hons) (Sydney), PhD (ANU)
Email: andrew.walker@anu.edu.au
Andrew Walker is an anthropologist working in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University .Research Interest
Mainland Southeast Asia (especially Thailand and Laos); land and water management; agricultural transformation; applied anthropology; social impact assessment; trading and transport systems; regulation; globalisation.
Key Publications
- 'Seeing farmers for the trees: Community forestry and the arborealisation of agriculture in northern Thailand ', Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 45 (3): 311-324, 2004.
- 'Agricultural transformation and the politics of hydrology in Northern Thailand ' Development and Change , 34 (5), 2003.
- (Editor) Resourcing Community: case studies from the Asia-Pacific, Special issue of The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology , 2(2), 2001.
- 'The 'Karen consensus', ethnic politics and resource-use legitimacy in northern Thailand ', Asian Ethnicity , 2(2), 145-162, 2000.
- The Legend of the Golden Boat: Regulation, Trade and Traders in the Borderlands of Laos, Thailand, Burma and China , Curzon Press, 1999.
- 'Women, space and history: long distance traders in northwestern Laos ', in Grant Evans (ed .), Laos: Culture and Society , Silkworm Books, Chaing Mai, 1999.
- 'Borders, frontier communities and the state: cross-river boat operators in Chiang Khong , Thailand ', Canberra Anthropology , October 1996.
Career Highlights
Research on trading systems in northern Laos ; development of integrated water resource management framework in northern Thailand ; co-convenor of Masters in Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development ; partner in Thai-Yunnan Project .
