Thailand’s Political Changes in Post-Thaksin Era：A Perspective of Democratic Retreat

[[abstract]]泰國傳統政治結構的核心主要環繞在泰王、軍人與文人團體等三者間的互動，自1932年由君主專制政體改為君主立憲制後，泰國的民主發展就在軍人與文人政府的更迭過程中持續演變。1992年黑色五月事件後，泰國正式進入以選舉為根基的民主時代，各界均看好泰國自此朝向全民主發展。然而2006年泰國軍方發起間隔15年的軍事政變，雖循過往惡性循環模式重新整頓政局，然而仍無法使軍方回復過往獨裁統治的盛況，(軍方)遂於2014年再次發動軍事政變，隨即頒布臨時憲法及重新修頒2016年新憲，且限制五人以上的集會運動，並以各種理由延宕大選之日期，迄今權力仍由軍方把持。雖軍政府表示最遲將於2019年2月舉辦大選，然各界均認為此時間僅是預估規劃，政府並未給予任何承諾。因此，從此現象可以發覺軍政府背後之企圖，無非是恢復過往威權統治時期的權力，導致泰國之民主受到嚴重的破壞。[[abstract]]The core of traditional political structure of Thailand is mainly surrounded by the interaction between Thai king, military and literati. Since the absolute monarchy had been changed to the constitutional monarchy in 1932, the democratic development of Thailand evolved during changes between the military government and the literati government. After Black May (Bloody May) in 1992, Thailand officially entered the democratic era which was based on elections, people are optimistic about Thailand's development towards Comprehensive democracy.However, in 2006, Thai military launched a military coup which was separated by 15 years. Although the military tried to rectify the political situation in order to avoid the vicious cycle, the military could not reply to the past dictatorship. In 2014, the military launched the coup again, immediately enacted an provisional constitution and later enacted the new constitution in 2016. The military prohibited public procession and public meetings over 5 people, and also delayed the election by various reasons. The power is still controlled by the military so far.Although the military government declare that the election will be held in February 2019 at the latest, people believe it is only an estimation, the government has not given any promise. Therefore, it is possible to speculate that the intention of the military government is to restore the power of the past authoritarian rule, leading to serious damage to the democracy of Thailand.[[note]]碩