Seminar Series: Abstract

Bullets and Ballots: Electoral Violence and Democracy in Modern Thailand (1973-the present)
Prajak Kongkirati

My research will examine the relationship between political violent conflicts and democracy in Thailand since the democratization process began in the 1970s. To examine this complex relationship, I will focus specifically on the violent conflicts in Thai electoral politics. In general, it is not an exaggeration to say that academic analysis of political conflict is the result of an urgent, real political problem. Throughout the world, many newly developing democratic countries have been coping with intense political conflicts and violence at every turn. And yet little is known about how democracies can be set up to mitigate such serious problems. Thailand has undergone dramatic ebbs and flows of democracy in the past three decades, i.e. a brief democratic interlude in the 1970s, semi-democracy in the 1980s, democratic breakdown in 1991, a long stretch of democratic institutions from 1992-2007, democratic (re)breakdown in 2006, and a return to democracy in 2008. It is, therefore, a very good case for investigating the effects of democratization on political violent conflict. In the last ten general national elections from 1983 to the latest polls in December 2007, a hundreds of people have died and injured as a result of election-related conflicts. This project aims to achieve four goals. First, it will demonstrate how election-related violent conflict is different from other types of conflict and thereby deepen our understanding of the relationship between elections and democracy. Second, I attempt to identify the factors that explain the causes and patterns of election-related violent conflicts in Thailand. Third, I will explain the variation in timing of violent conflicts in electoral politics. Deeper understanding of the timing of conflict will help in developing measures to prevent and mitigate the occurrence of serious confrontation in elections. Lastly, I aim to bridge a gap that has existed in the social science literature between studies of political conflict and studies of electoral politics. There is a body of electoral engineering literature dealing particularly with the question of how electoral systems can be designed to prevent conflicts or promote peace in divided societies. Nevertheless, there is no similar body of literature dealing with the glaringly obvious reality that elections are commonly a major source of conflict, rather than a tool to resolve conflict.