Check Prof McCargo new article about Thailand

The Thai Malaise by Duncan McCargo
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/02/18/the_thai_malaise

---

In fact, Thailand faces two huge parallel challenges, neither of which is of Thaksin's making: The first challenge is national anxiety about the country's future. Rama 9, King Bhumibol, the world's longest serving monarch, is now 86 years old. Who will succeed him, and what will happen as a result, is the focus of endless gossip among Thais. A lot of the protestors' anti-Thaksin sentiment reflects their view that the influential former premier must not have any hand in managing the delicate succession process.
The second challenge, seen in attempts to disrupt voting in Bangkok and elsewhere, concerns the logic of electoral politics. Now that voters in the north and northeast have been mobilized to vote as a bloc, the Bangkok middle classes and their southern allies face the real prospect that they will never again choose a government to their liking. Thailand has moved into a phase of majoritarianism, in which pro-Thaksin governments will be able to run the country with virtual impunity for the foreseeable future. Affluent Bangkokians have finally grasped the logic of electoral democracy: they are permanently outnumbered by the rural masses.

---

---