Monarchy studies

Within a couple of days, PPT has seen two recent studies of the role of the monarchy in urban development.

The first is a journal article with Asian Studies Review by Puangchon Unchanam of Naresuan University, titled “No Royal Road: Urban Transportation, Capitalist Development, and Monarchy in Thailand.” The abstract states:

This article examines the role of the Thai monarchy in shaping urban transportation in Bangkok, Thailand’s capital and one of the world’s most congested cities. With an inquiry into the history of Bangkok under the reign of the previous king, Rama IX, the narratives of city staff who received the monarch’s guidance, and the king’s initiatives that relate to city planning, this article illustrates the problematic role of the monarchy in urban transportation. While the palace and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration have saluted Rama IX’s initiatives for building more ring roads, overpasses, and bridges to solve traffic congestion, this article argues that these royal initiatives failed to address the roots of the problem. These include an excessive reliance on motor vehicles, insufficient public transportation, the dominant role of the automotive industry in the national economy, city planning that serves middle-class drivers at the expense of the mass of commuters, the close association between the crown and car companies, and the unconstitutional role of the monarchy in such matters. Swept under the rug during the historic reign of Rama IX, these problems have started to come to light in the current reign of Rama X.

From Quora

While the article is behind a paywall, PPT has always found authors generous with the free electronic copies they hold.

The second is a talk, at Hong Kong University, by Rawin Leelapatana of the Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University, available on YouTube. The abstract for the talk titled “The Monarchy-led Urban Development: Lessons from Bangkok’s Planning Regime” states:

Although royal absolutism was abolished on 24 June 1932, much infrastructure, including many roads and public facilities in the capital, Bangkok, is said to be the products of royal initiatives of his majesty the king. Ostensibly, the construction of such infrastructure was delivered, especially from the 1970s onwards, by a constitutional rather than an executive monarch and even against the presence of democratisation and the Western-style urban planning regime. Such construction was put into operation by either the royal institution, a state organ, or individual royalist elites in honour of the king. As a result, these structures become visible symbols of public loyalty to the sacred throne as well as the king’s graciousness and altruism towards the people. I call this royal-initiated form of urban development ‘the monarchy-led urban development’ (MUD). I argue that to implement the MUD in democratizing Thailand, the monarchy must move away from operating blatantly outside the law and instead seek recourse to it. Written constitutions, planning law instruments, and non-planning law instruments are integral for turning the abstract constitutional ideology of royal nationalism into concrete reality, while also lending a veneer of legality to royal prerogative in urban planning.

PPT added the emphasis. As lecturers used to say, “compare and contrast.”