Democratization and Constitutional Reform in Thailand (Has Constitutionalism Saved Democracy?)

This book examines the phenomenon of the "judicialization of politics," which has attracted attention as one of the causes of the retreat of Thai democracy, focusing on the May 1992 bloodshed, the political reform movement, and the discussions during the drafting of the 1997 and 2007 constitutions. By carefully examining interviews with those involved and the minutes of the drafting of the constitutions, the author clarified the differences between Thai constitutionalism and Western constitutionalism, and analyzed the causes of the "judicialization of politics" and the "retreat of democracy" in Thailand. While many existing studies on the judicialization of Thai politics are critical of the drafters of the Constitution, this book does not focus solely on criticism, but also examines the reasons why they enacted the Constitution by directly interviewing the drafters and carefully examining the minutes of the Constitutional Assembly, and examines the limits of the King's ability to arbitrate due to the intensification and scale of the mass demonstrations since the 1990s. The book is unique in that it carefully depicts the "sense of crisis" they felt toward the limits of the King's ability to arbitrate due to the intensification and scale of mass demonstrations since the 1990s.