Business Associations and the New Political Economy of Thailand

This outstanding contribution to our understanding of Thailand’s political economic system is perhaps the first major English-language work that provides an up-to-date analysis of the country widely hailed as Asia’s next newly industrialized country. Dr. Laothamatas argues that, at least in the realm of economic decision-making, Thailand has moved away from a pure form of bureaucratic polity to a system he refers to as liberal corporatism. He presents detailed empirical data regarding chambers of commerce, their peak organizations, and the nation’s trade associations, all of which will have a profound influence on the direction Thailand’s political economy takes. The book should be of great interest to students of Thai politics, as it directly challenges Fred Riggs’ “bureaucratic polity†model, which has so long dominated the thinking of both Western and Thai scholars. Policymakers and development specialists interested in the state-business relationship also will find the study useful, given the author’s deft placement of the Thai case in the context of the debate on modernization theory and the recent spate of writings on the role of the state in newly industrializing countries.