Research Activities
Research Projects 2025
Political and Economic Changes in Thailand under Prayuth Administration, 2014-23
Outline
This study analyzes the changes in politics, economy, and society in Thailand during the eight-year administration of Prayut Chan-o-cha, who seized power through a coup in May 2014 and handed over the prime ministerial position to a party politician in the general election in May 2023. In recent years, Thailand has often been cited as one of the countries where the retreat of democracy is prominent. This is because, despite progress in democratization in the 1990s, coups and military political rule were reinstated after 2006. By the 2010s, it had become conventional wisdom that the deepening and sharpening of domestic political divisions since 2006 was due to conflict between existing political elites and emerging political forces, and that the growing support for emerging political forces was due to the widening of domestic economic and social disparities and regional disparities. Although this view has some validity in explaining the current situation, further elaboration is needed in analyzing the changes in Thai society since 2014, when a series of events shook the foundations of the political and economic system, such as the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) and the pandemic, occurred. This study sheds light on the changes in Thailand by empirically analyzing the authoritarian politics of the Prayut administration and the substance and consequences of policies and institutional reforms in the economic and social fields.
Period
April 2025 - March 2027
Members
| Role | Member |
|---|---|
| [ Organizer ] | Imaizumi, Shinya |
| [ Co-researcher ] | Takahashi, Naoko |
| [ Co-researcher ] | Tsukada, Kazunari |
| [ Co-researcher ] | Funatsu, Tsuruyo |
| [ Co-researcher ] | Kongkirati, Prajak(Thammasat University Associate Professor) |
| [ Co-researcher ] | Miyoshi, Yusuke (The University of Tokyo Graduate Student) |
| [ Co-researcher ] | Kumagai, Shotaro(Japan Research Institute Economist) |
| [ Co-researcher ] | Endo, Gen(Daito Bunka University Professor) |
*Affiliations are as of April 2025.
Expected Outcome
- Book published by IDE (Japanese)