Making Democracy: Leadership, Class, Gender, and Political Participation in Thailand AEC and the Orang Laut and

and the Orang Laut and the Malay kingdoms of Melaka and Johor

the Philippines

the communist bloc’s economic rescue and the related political upheaval

at the end of their two-year war against Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge

Making Democracy: Leadership, Class, Gender, and Political Participation in Thailand AEC and the Orang Laut andDemocracy in Thailand is the result of a complex interplay of traditional and foreign attitudes. Although democratic institutions have been imported, participation in politics is deeply rooted in Thai village society. A contrasting strand of authoritarianism is present not only in the traditional culture of the royal court but also in the centralized bureaucracies and powerful armed services borrowed from the West. Both attitudes have helped to shape