In 1958, Marshal Sarit Thanarat became prime minister of Thailand following a bloodless coup. This book offers a comprehensive study of Sarit's paternalistic, militaristic regime, which laid the foundations for Thailand's support of the US military campaign in Southeast Asia. The analysis documents the ways in which Sarit shaped modern Thai politics, in part by rationalizing a symbiotic relationship between his own office and the Thai monarchy.
The allocation of resources and the design of policies tailored to local-level conditions require highly disaggregated information. Data on poverty at the local level is typically not available because most household surveys are not representative past the regional level. This volume aims to promote the effective use of Small Area Estimation poverty maps in policy making. It presents the range of policies and interventions which have been informed by poverty maps, focusing on the political economy of poverty maps and the key elements to their effective use by policy makers. The volume also looks at the future of poverty maps in terms of new techniques and new areas of application.
The rural, Lao-speaking people of northeastern Thailand constitute over a third of the entire population of Thailand. Over the last century, this ethnically separate community has evolved from a traditional peasantry into “cosmopolitan” villagers who are actively shaping Thai politics. Eminent anthropologist Charles Keyes traces this evolution in detail, beginning with the failure of a Buddhist millenarian uprising in 1901–2 and concluding with the successful election of the Thai Rak Thai/Pheu Thai Party in the 2000s. In the intervening century, rural northeasterners have become more educated and prosperous, and they have gained a sophisticated understanding of the world and of their position in it as Thai citizens. Although northeasterners have often been thwarted in their efforts to press government agencies to redress their grievances, they have rejected radical revolutionary efforts to transform the Thai political system. Instead, they have looked to parliamentary democracy as the system in which they can make their voices heard. As the country engages with the processes of democracy, the Pheu Thai Party and the Red Shirt movement appear to have established the people of northeastern Thailand as an authentic voice in the nation’s political landscape. Highlights • Traces the evolution of a marginalized peasantry into a significant political force in Thai society • Examines the disjunction between the urban middle-class negative perspectives on the northeastern Thai rural population and real characteristics of that population • Highlights the different views of political authority and legitimacy in Thailand that have contributed to the twenty-first century crisis in the Thai political order What Others Are Saying “Finding Their Voice by anthropologist Charles Keyes is a culmination of decades of careful ethnography consistently combined with an astute political analysis and sense of history. Reminiscent of Eugen Weber’s classic, “Peasants into Frenchmen,” Keyes’s book shows that the people of Isan have become the makers and undoers of governments and are more firmly wedded to the modern notion of parliamentary democracy than are the refined urban elites. This book has as much to say about the polarized politics of Thailand as it does about the rich culture and history of Isan.” —Philip Hirsch, University of Sydney
In the context of FAO's Global Action (GA) on Green Development of Special Agro-Products (SAPs), themed as “One Country – One Priority Product” (OCOP), given that OCOP shares similar philosophy as the One Village One Product (OVOP) movement and taking advantages of the rich experiences of OVOP and advances made by Asian countries, especially Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)'s support in many OVOP projects around the world, this publication presents an overview of the OVOP movement globally and showcases how OVOP can boost rural economies and increase food security nutrition through the development of local products hence contributing to SDG 1, 2, and 10. Chapter I explains what OVOP is and how it has been disseminated outside Japan. Chapter II provides overview of JICA's support for OVOP. In Chapter III, JICA’s OVOP projects are analyzed in terms of their objectives, alignment to strategic policy framework, target population, products/services, governance structure and monitoring and evaluation. Chapter IV reviews the process and interventions taken in OVOP projects and identifies good practices.Chapter V lists success factors which are extracted from OVOP projects. FAO’s One Country–One Priority Product (OCOP) projects are encouraged to refer to them in their planning and implementation phases. Lastly, in Chapter VII, several implications and recommendations for OCOP are drawn from OVOP experiences of JICA.
