Breakdown of hegemony: Thailand's political crisis 2006- in Gramscian perspective

Abstract

The central theme of this thesis is the proposal that in Thai politics, a new historical transformational phase, a new paradigm, has emerged since the 1997-98 Southeast Asian economic crises. It is proposed, that this new phase indicates the breakdown of the hegemonic rule of the old elite networks the army, the bureaucracy, the palace, and the old Thai business elites. These networks, it is argued, have held both material and ideological control over the masses since Thailand became a modern capitalist state in the late 19th century during the historic hegemonic bloc of the Pax Britannica. The starting point for analysis in this study is to interpret Thailand's current political crisis, which has been undergoing since the military ousted the Prime Minister elect, Taksin Shinawat, and his Thai Rak Thai government in September 2006, as a class conflict, the roots of which are embedded in the historical development processes of capitalism in Thailand. The new transformational phase, it is argued, indicates the emergence of the rural and the urban poor as a counter-hegemonic politically active social force in the realm of Thai politics. The rural and the urban poor as a politically active force demand more participation in the political decision-making, more social justice, and more social reforms.

To illustrate the new transformational phase in Thai politics, the author has combined two approaches as interpretative tools in illustrating the function of hegemony in the Thai context against the backdrop of the function of hegemony on the international systemic level. The two approaches are the Gramscian method of the philosophy of praxis, which the author has reconstructed from Gramsci's original texts, and the Neo-Gramscian Italian School's theory of the historic hegemonic blocs in the world system. In Gramscian analysis, the two levels the domestic and the international are intertwined. To articulate Thailand's current political crisis as a major shift in the class relations in Thai society, Gramsci's concepts of organic crisis and his dual notion of the war of position/passive revolution are used. Thailand's current political crisis is interpreted as a Gramscian organic crisis, a crisis of the state authority, which indicates a major historical rupture point from the passive revolution situation to a war of position situation between the various configurations of social forces. In the passive revolution situation, the hegemonic rulers keep the cohesion of their hegemonic social order by implementing social reforms brought about by the inbuilt change processes in the system. In the war of position situation, on the contrary, the organized counter-hegemonic forces, due to their empowered political consciousness, challenge the old hegemonic order and demand an alternative way of organizing a society.

The focus of the analysis is on the historical forms of change and transformation of the totality of the power relations in Thai society in Thai historical context, where the hegemony of the elite networks emerges from the intertwined processes on the levels of the material base structure and the superstructure: the economic, the political, and the ideological. Hence, the function of hegemony in Thai context is illustrated through historical analysis: the hegemonic structures are positioned as having initially been created against the international systemic changes of the Pax Britannica era, when the interests of the elite networks were unified under the strong nation-state, upheld by the military and the bureaucracy. The consolidation of the hegemonic rule and the strengthening of the military, as well as reinstating Thai monarchy as a hegemonic tool, happened during the American neo-liberalist project of the Pax Americana era. The Southeast Asian economic crisis of 1997-98 and the ensued international neo-liberalist offensive, it is argued, set in motion the breakdown of the hegemonic elite networks rule. In the Gramscian perspective, the polarization of society and the counterhegemonic resistance movement, embodied in the Red Shirt Movement, indicate a major change in the power configurations of the Thai society.