Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
submittedVersion
Publication Date
6-2019
Abstract
Underneath the veneer of a homogenous state-approved Thai ethnicity,Thailand is home to a heterogeneous population. Only about one-thirdof Thailand’s inhabitants speak the national language as their mothertongue; multiple alternate ethnolinguistic groups comprise the remainderof the population, with the Lao in the northeast, often called Isan people,being the largest at 28 percent of the population. Ethnic divisions closelyalign with areas of political party strength: the Thai Rak Thai Party and itssubsequent incarnations have enjoyed strong support from Isan people andKhammuang speakers in the north while the Democrat Party dominatesamong the Thai- and Paktay-speaking people of the central plains and thesouth. Despite this confluence of ethnicity and political party support, wesee very little mobilization along ethnic cleavages. Why? I argue that ethnicmobilization remains minimal because of the large-scale public acceptanceand embrace of the government-approved Thai identity. Even among thecountry’s most disadvantaged, such as Isan people, support is still strongfor “Thai-ness.” Most inhabitants of Thailand espouse the mantra that tobe Thai is superior to being labelled as part of an alternate ethnic group. Idemonstrate this through the application of large-scale survey data as wellas a set of interviews with self-identified Isan people. The findings suggestthat the Thai state has successfully inculcated a sense of national identityamong the Isan people and that ethnic mobilization is hindered by ardentnationalism.
Keywords
ethnic identity, ethnic mobilization, nation-building, nationalism, Thailand
Discipline
Asian Studies | Political Science | Race and Ethnicity
Research Areas
Political Science
Publication
Pacific Affairs
Volume
92
Issue
2
First Page
257
Last Page
285
ISSN
0030-851X
Identifier
10.5509/2019922257
Publisher
University of British Columbia
Citation
RICKS, Jacob I..(2019). Proud to be Thai: The puzzling absence of ethnicity-based political cleavages in Northeastern Thailand. Pacific Affairs, 92(2), 257-285.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2962
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.5509/2019922257