Political Trust of Military in Semi Democratic State

...

Elite culture is a deep-rooted culture in political system. It can explain that the elites influence a strong role in politics. None of states is governed without elite culture. Due to the characteristic of elites which almost elites were born in a powerful lineage; they have well education from famous institutions; they also have or use to have a power in métiers that influence politics, such as military, business, bureaucrat, etc. It makes the elites are more reliable but are not an individual term. Hague & Harrop (2013) said elites hold the power by two manners. The first manner through ‘elite confidence’, it occurs when the influent group such as elites set their mind that they have their own right to govern people. This manner is quite serious if the elites use their rapacious power without priority of public which definitely contrasts with democratic idea. The second manner is ‘elite compromise’, which is culture compromising between leaders of distinct social group are revealed their purposes interacting in the whole society. As we look at elite culture in political trust perspective, we can analyze that the elites hold a high level of political trust as heritage from generation to generation. In addition, since they hold high trust it makes them have a lot of confidence to govern, as they set their mind that the way of their government is absolutely correct, lead them to govern without any advice. In contrast, the way of government that citizens prefer is elite compromise. The elites lead them with negotiation for finding the equilibrium of situations. When these two types of elite’s government contrast each other, the side governing by elite compromise will have more political stronghold than another side because they have more support from citizens. However, elite compromise might cause corruption without doubt of people, as in case of an old Thai Prime Minister Taksin Shinawatra.

Hague & Harrop (2013) explained that post-materialism is the transformation of individual values from materialist to self-government and self-expression, emphasizing autonomy, flexibility and tolerance. Post materialism generates in young well-education people emphasize on other notion. Before post materialism appears the previous generation emphasize survival value, which led to order, security and fixed rules in particular areas. Nowadays, the young generation switches the angle focusing on ecology, nuclear disarmament, and feminism. Moreover, post materialism supports challenging rather than following instruction in elite system of the new politics. According to post materialism idea, it leads to establishing many inter-organizations and international agreements which aim to focus on ecology, nuclear disarmament, and feminism, such as Greenpeace and World YWCA. Besides, these organizations try to fill the gap of particular problem that the government cannot solve.

Political culture in authoritarian state is a pattern of government in countries that give the priority to the value of security rather than self-expression (Hague & Harrop, 2013, p.108). Even if a democracy emerges in that particular country, it will be unsustainable due to the preference of citizens towards their leader or representative (semi-democracy). Moreover, this kind of political culture could exist in democratic regime when the people do not concern so much about participated behavior. That makes the democratic system fails. The authoritarian seeks to place an authoritarian regime solely or principally in a nation’s politic culture (Hague & Harrop, 2013, p.108). However, this cultural tradition is declined by young well-education people with post materialism, who emphasis to self-expression and autonomy rather than following leader’s orders. It shifts the country to modernization.

After coup d’état in 2014 leads Thailand under the military government. It is quite often happening after political disorder. This situation makes other democratic states think that the country is going backwards to authoritarian regime. Besides, it declines the credit of the country in an international relations term. In the other way, it makes citizens separating into big two group middle class and lower class. Middle class refers to a group of technocrat, scholar, even NGOs. The group do not agree with the previous government which led by Yingluck Shinawatra. It can demonstrate by disagreement of government policies, such as Rice subsidy scheme which many technocrats picked it up to claim as corruption policy even though it was the policy from majority votes. Lower class defines as peasants and workers. These people are seen as low education and floater, but these people are an important political stronghold because they are the majority group of votes.

The main reason of coup d’état is Thailand’s revolution. In addition, middle class is a main support of coup d’état. The first reason of its support is middle class felt that they are limited political rights, as they have been an important vote before, by a structural politics in 1997. During that time, structural politics is decentralized power to provincial parts and rural people. Besides, the government at that time which led by Taksin Shinnawatra made many policies related to the structural politics, such as Rice subsidy scheme that the government intervene in economic price floor in order to increase peasant incomes and get pleasure from the lower class which is the majority vote. However, this policy affects the middle class especially owner rice mill and exporter. This policy will reduce their profits. Afterwards, it became conflict of interest between middle class and the government. Technocrat brought up the project to demonstrate about government’s corruption. According to article of Tnews, the article explains about the advantage and disadvantage of Rice subsidy scheme. This project brought higher incomes about 72,712 millions baths to farmers. However, the problems are this project used a number of money to help farmer in order to keep the majority vote, it was going to bring the economy down and broke the rice export system. The project was quite complicated to find out where the budged gone. Besides, it can break the economic system down because of a number of loans in the future. It can explain populism used for remaining the majority vote but do not concern so much about the economic long-run. For this reason, it caused the middle class including technocrats, scholars, businesses, and exporters fight against the government and support the military. The reason that middle class support military is about elite culture. According to Institution of Human Rights and Peace Studies, they researched about role of elites and public politics. The research explained that elites and middle class are an alliance, and the military is the