The bourgeois (counter) revolution
Readers might be interested in Joshua Kurlantzick’s “The Bourgeois Revolution” in Foreign Policy (April 2009), sub-titled “How the global middle class declared war on democracy.
The article begins with Thailand and observes: “Abhisit’s middle-class supporters are not reformers, but antidemocratic reactionaries. Their perceived status as progressives clouds the truth, and it also throws a veil over one of the most confusing evolutions in developing countries over the last decade: the rise of the democracy-hating middle class.”
Again, PPT wants to draw attention to Ji Ungpakorn’s recent note on NGOs and PAD.
Collectively, Thailand’s middle class seems to have never learned that bourgeois democracy can be an effective strategy for political stability and rule but that it requires compromise with those who are to be ruled and controlled.
Comments are closed.