ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to study the post-transition regime in Thai politics since its political transition has never reached the state of democratic consolidation. That is to say, democracy is not fully adopted as “the only game in town” because the new regime, many times, is in between liberalism and authoritarianism, or it represents the middle categories of what is usually referred to as “hybrid regime”. The in-between regime type allows the elites and the military to maintain their prerogatives in the post-transition politics. As a result, this kind of regime becomes an ideal type for them. With this direction, democratic transition is always controlled in order to produce the system of “partly free” politics. Indeed, the discussion of post-transition regime suggests that we need to think in terms of “degree” of the so-called Thai democratic regime and also why it happens that way in this country. Therefore, this chapter will not study the military intervention in Thai politics as such since there are many studies on this subject. But it will put major emphasis on the questions of what kind of regime will emerge after the end of direct military involvement in politics.
