THE POWER ELITE IN THAILAND: A General Survey with a Focus on the Civil Bureaucrats

1975 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Likhit Dhiravegin
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Family Background ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Student Leaders ◽  
Government Service ◽  
Business Elite ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Power Elite ◽  
The Military

AbstractAt the macro level, we have given a systemic picture of the elite structure of Thai society. We have argued that the most three powerful groups of elite are the military, the civil bureaucratic elite and the business elite. Among these three groups of elite, an alliance has been developed. The business elite have sought political protection from the military and the bureaucratic elite while the latter. two groups obtain economic benefit. Below the three groups of elite lie the people's representatives; the student leaders, the labour leaders and the peasant organizers. We have argued that the people's representatives are on the border line because the democratice structure has not yet become institutionalized. And this is true also for the student leaders, the labour leaders and the peasant organizers. At best, they are at the early stage of getting organized and thus they are classified as interest groups who are becoming more and more active in politics. At the micro level, we have presented an analysis of the general characteristics of the civil bureaucratic elite of Thailand. We have found from our discussion that more than two-fifths (41%) of the elite in our study have fathers in government service; 31.44% are from families of business; only 5.6% are from a peasant background. There ia an inbreeding in the government service career. We have hypothesized that family background plays a crucial role in an individual's educational achievement which, in turn, leads to his social mobility. From our study, we have found that social mobility

The 1989 Tiananmen Movement and Its Aftermath

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowena Xiaoqing He
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Student Leaders ◽  
Actual Number ◽  
Hunger Strike ◽  
Tiananmen Square ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government ◽  
China Today ◽  
The Military

In spring 1989, millions of Chinese took to the streets calling for reforms. The nationwide movement, highlighted by a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, ended on June 4 with the People’s Liberation Army firing on unarmed civilians. Over 200,000 soldiers, equipped with tanks and machine guns, participated in the lethal action. Student leaders, intellectuals, workers, and citizens were subsequently purged, imprisoned, or exiled. Tiananmen remains one of the most sensitive and taboo subjects in China today, banned from both academic and popular realms. Even the actual number of deaths from the military crackdown remains unknown. Every year on the anniversary of June 4, the government intensifies its control, and citizens who commemorate the events are put under various forms of surveillance. The Tiananmen Mothers are prohibited from openly mourning family members who died in the massacre, and exiles are prohibited from returning home, even for a parent’s funeral. Many older supporters of the movement, leading liberal intellectuals in the 1980s, died in exile. The post-Tiananmen regime has constructed a narrative that portrays the Tiananmen Movement as a Western conspiracy to weaken and divide China, hence justifying its military crackdown as necessary for stability and prosperity and paving the way for China’s rise. Because public opinion pertaining to nationalism and democratization is inseparable from a collective memory of the nation’s most immediate past—be it truthful, selective, or manipulated—the memory of Tiananmen has become highly contested. While memory can be manipulated or erased by those in power, the repression of both memory and history is accompanied by political, social, and psychological distortions. Indeed, it is not possible to understand today’s China and its relationship with the world without understanding the spring of 1989.

Regime Change in Contemporary Turkey

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Necati Polat
Keyword(s):  
Recent Change ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
New Order ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Turkish Politics ◽  
Subsequent Phase ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Military

This book explores the transformation of Turkey’s political regime from 2002 under the AKP rule. Turkey has been through a series of major political shifts historically, roughly from the mid-19th century. The book details the most recent change, locating it in its broader historical setting. Beginning with the AKP rule from late 2002, supported by a wide informal coalition that included liberals, it describes how the ‘former’ Islamists gradually acquired full power between 2007 and 2011. It then chronicles the subsequent phase, looking at politics and rights under the amorphous new order. This highly accessible assessment of the change in question places it in the larger context of political modernisation in the country over the past 150 or so years, covering all of the main issues in contemporary Turkish politics: the religious and secular divide, the Kurds, the military, foreign policy orientation, the state of human rights, the effective concentration of powers in the government and a rule by policy, rather than law, initiated by Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian populism. The discussion at once situates Turkey in the broader milieu of the Arab Spring, especially in terms of Islamist politics and Muslim piety in the public sphere, with some emphasis on ‘Islamo-nationalism’ (Millî Görüş) as a local Islamist variety. Effortlessly blending history, politics, law, social theory and philosophy in making sense of the change, the book uses the concept of mimesis to show that continuity is a key element in Turkish politics, despite the series of radical breaks that have occurred.

E-Government : an exploratory study of online government procurement

2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Maniam Kaliannan
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Government Procurement ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Government Service ◽  
The Public ◽  
Organizational Perspective ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Level

The quest to improve the government service delivery is becoming an important agenda for most governments. The introduction oflCT in the public sector especially E-Government initiatives opens up a new chapter in the government administration throughout the world. Governments have deployed ICT to serve their citizens in an efficient and effective manner. This paper presents an empirical investigation of Malaysian government's e-Procurement initiative (locally known as e-Perolehan). The aim of the paper is to examine factors that influence the current and future use of the system within the supplier community. These factors are grouped in three perspectives, (i) organizational perspective; (ii) technological perspective; and (Hi) environmental perspective. The general consensus amongst both the buyer and seller communities is that e-procurement will become an important management tool to enhance the performance of supply chain especially in the public sector. However, before this occurs, the findings suggest that several issues must be addressed by the relevant authorities in light of the three perspectives as mentioned above, to improve the procurement process at the federal government level.

KAJIAN DAMPAK KEBIJAKAN PENUTUPAN LOKALISASI TELEJU OLEH PEMERINTAH KOTA PEKANBARU

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
M. Zainuddin
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Policy Content ◽  
The Government ◽  
Closure Policy ◽  
The Impact

This research to analyze the impact of closure policy Teleju brothel by Pekanbaru govermentin 2010. Guidelines for works are Pekanbaru Local Regulations No. 12 of 2008 on Social Order-liness. Closure this brothel inflicts positive and negative impact for society.The research wasconducted to obtain early stage formula for the government to take action against the prostitu-tion activities. This research uses policy research approach with a qualitative method, becausein prostitution activities and prohibition by goverment is an assessment that needs to be done byanalyzing documents and unstructured interview.The results showed that after the closing of the Teleju brothel have an impact on the deploy-ment of a prostitution and affect the economy of the surrounding residents. Government seeksto tackle prostitution in Pekanbaru by moving the brothel, conduct regular raids and providetraining. The effort is considered to be less than the maximum because the handling is not basedon the root of the problem and not programmed properly. There are several causes of failure ofgovernment to overcome the prostitution problem in Pekanbaru, including: policy content isless focus on the prostitution problem, the government did not proceeds with data, lack of finan-cial support, contra productive programs between local government with the police and TNI,and the policy object is difficult to be given understanding.

The Arthur Crawford Scandal

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Metelits
Keyword(s):  
Retirement Age ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Government Service ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
High Court ◽  
Secretary Of State ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Government ◽  
To Receive

The Arthur Crawford Scandal explores how nineteenth century Bombay tried a British official for corruption. The presidency government persuaded Indians, government officials, to testify against the very person who controlled their career by offering immunity from legal action and career punishment. A criminal conviction of Crawford’s henchman established the modus operandi of a bribery network. Subsequent efforts to intimidate Indian witnesses led to litigation at the high court level, resulting in a political pressure campaign in London based on biased press reports from India. These reports evoked questions in the House of Commons; questions became demands that Indians witnesses against Crawford be fired from government service. The secretary of state for India and the Bombay government negotiated about the fate of the Indian witnesses. At first, the secretary of state accepted the Bombay government’s proposals. But the press campaign against the Indian witnesses eventually led him to order the Government of India, in consultation with the Government of Bombay, to pass a law ordering those officials who paid Crawford willingly, to be fired. Those whom the Bombay government determined to be extorted were not to be fired. Both groups retained immunity from further actions at law. Thus, Bombay won a victory that almost saved its original guarantee of immunity: those who were fired were to receive their salary (along with periodic step increases) until they reached retirement age, at which time they would receive a pension. However, this ‘solution’ did little to overcome the stigma and suffering of the fired officials.

scholarly journals Re-Imagining Social Mobility: The Role of Relationality, Social Class and Place in Qualitative Constructions of Mobility

2021 ◽  
pp. 136078042098512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Folkes
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Ontological Security ◽  
Occupational Position ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Key Techniques ◽  
Class Community

Discussions around social mobility have increasingly gained traction in both political and academic circles in the last two decades. The current, established conceptualisation of social mobility reduces ‘success’ down to individual level of educational achievement, occupational position and income, focusing on the successful few who rise up and move out. For many in working-class communities, this discourse is undesirable or antithetical to everyday life. Drawing upon 13 interviews with 9 families collected as part of an ethnographic study, this article asks, ‘how were social (im)mobility narratives and notions of value constructed by residents of one working-class community?’ Its findings highlight how alternative narratives of social (im)mobility were constructed; emphasising the value of fixity, anchorage, and relationality. Three key techniques were used by participants when constructing social (im)mobility narratives: the born and bred narrative; distancing from education as a route to mobility; and the construction of a distinct working-class discourse of fulfilment. Participants highlighted the value of anchorage to place and kinship, where fulfilment results from finding ontological security. The findings demonstrate that residents of a working-class community constructed alternative social mobility narratives using a relational selfhood model that held local value. This article makes important contributions to the theorisation of social mobility in which it might be understood as a collective rather than individual endeavour, improving entire communities that seek ontological security instead of social class movement and dislocation.

scholarly journals Drunk Drivers’ Willingness to Use and to Pay for Designated Drivers

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5362
Author(s):  
Rong-Chang Jou ◽  
Li-Wun Syu
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Family Background ◽  
Drunk Driving ◽  
Motor Vehicles ◽  
Drinking Habits ◽  
Car Accidents ◽  
Drunk Drivers ◽  
Double Hurdle ◽  
The Government ◽  
Willingness To Use

While drunk driving accidents, which are a serious problem in Taiwan, have decreased in recent years, cases of drunk driving continue to emerge endlessly, and are a source of traffic risks even when the accidents cause no injuries. In order to prevent drunk driving and reduce car accidents, the government has made laws stricter, and has vigorously promoted “designated drivers”. As the concept of designated drivers is not common in Taiwan, this study mainly explores drunk drivers’ understanding of designated drivers in Nantou County and Taichung City, and investigates the willingness of drunk drivers to use and to pay for designated driving services. This study conducted a questionnaire survey on the drunk drivers of the drunk driving and traffic safety training course held at the Motor Vehicles Office. Double-hurdle and tobit models were applied to investigate the issues mentioned above. According to the test results, the tobit model was superior to the double-hurdle model. The estimation results indicated that distance, age, income, family conditions, and drinking habits influence the willingness to use and to pay for designated drivers. Gender, age, family background, and experience in designated driving cause differences in the willingness to use designated drivers in the two regions. It is expected that the conclusion of this study could provide a direction and reference for the future improvement of designated driving services.

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