Situating the Thai Case

Abstract

Thai politics is many things, but one thing it is not is inclusive and certainly not when it comes to gender. Women are still largely absent from the political arena in Thailand. Thailand will, in this chapter, be introduced as the case in which the main variables are contextualized, illustrated, and elaborated on. Thailand is also the case in which I study questions of candidate selection, clientelism, and gender in more depth. I have shown statistical support for the argument that the level of democracy and political stability are associated with formal institutional strength, which, in turn, lays the groundwork for informal institutions such as clientelism. I have also shown that a lower quality of government and a higher level of clientelism are associated with the level of men in parliament in international comparisons. Such statistical comparisons are by necessity made with rather crude indicators of these complex societal phenomena. While informative as far as general trends go, they tell us less about how the relationships come about and function in the real world, that is, the social mechanisms. This chapter thus introduces Thailand as an apt case for a somewhat deeper investigation of the workings of political institutions and corruption in the representation of men. It will outline and reiterate, based on Chapter 2, what type of case Thailand is, how it will be used methodologically, and how it relates to the overall picture.