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POLITICAL DECENTRALISATION AND THE RESURGENCE OF REGIONAL IDENTITIES IN THAILAND
Author(s) -
Jory Patrick
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
australian journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1839-4655
pISSN - 0157-6321
DOI - 10.1002/j.1839-4655.1999.tb01084.x
Subject(s) - decentralization , cultural assimilation , politics , ethnic group , democratization , government (linguistics) , political science , project commissioning , national identity , political economy , publishing , public administration , identity (music) , national unity , political culture , sociology , development economics , democracy , law , economics , linguistics , philosophy , physics , acoustics
This article looks at the cultural resurgence that is taking place in Thailand's regions and amongst its ethnic minorities after a century of assimilationist policies carried out by the central Thai government in the interests of national integration. The article argues that the cultural resurgence is a result of three decades of economic development and a parallel process of democratisation of the political system. This has not only given different cultural groups new political rights to express their culture openly, but has also resulted in the government no longer regarding such expressions of cultural identity as posing a threat to Thai national unity.