THAILAND:

Book Number: 21 712

Chaiyan Rajchagool

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THAI ABSOLUTE MONARCHY
Foundations of the Modern Thai State from Feudalism to Peripheral Capitalism, Studies in Contemporary Thailand No. 2

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THAI (4.9 K)

This is no ordinary study of nation building. It differs markedly in its theoretical approach from existing studies of Thailand, both by Thais and by foreigners. In the mid-nineteenth century, Siam was no more than a loose grouping of petty states and principalities, lacking well defined borders and a centralized power structure. Yet within a period of forty years a unified state had emerged. How and why had this happened? Those are the questions that this penetrating study addresses. It is central to the author's argument that the form of the new state was the absolute monarchy. He analyses the socioeconomic conditions that existed at the time of Siam's early contact with Western economic and colonial forces and examines the ways in which political and administrative control gradually came to be held by the monarchy, based in Bangkok. He also addresses the question of why, within another forty years, the absolute monarchy had been replaced by a constitutional monarchy. This study of the process by which one particular state was created makes a significant contribution to the whole study of state building in developing societies.

(Bangkok 1994) ISBN 974-8495-08-2

229 pp., 150 x 210 mm, pbk.

25.- US-Dollar

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