Author(s): Nadthanon Chirakitnimit, Silawat Chaiwong, Phramaha Phanuwat Saenkham
The objective of this article is to analyze populism and the civil state with regard to the use of political power in a democratic system based on the current political situation in Thailand involving a wide variety of important political phenomena that are referred to as populist politics, which were the heart of the constitution of the year 2007. However, the present politcal system is still gravely flawed because it has been monopolized by politicians and capitalists and remains quite problematic in terms of vote-buying corrupting the elections, use of influence and the patronage system in localities for intimidation of people, and also the use of the state power and the power of money to allow for the winning of elections based on the systemic weaknesses. Moreover, the fraudulence of politicians by using the “populist” policies model is greatly related to the political parties or government that has the opportunity to jointly administer the country. Populism has therefore been unavoidably applied as a selling point to gain political results in the pursuit of power and the benefits for their own supporters without considering the results that follow. This has led to the guidelines for the administration of the country by the government of General Prayut Chan-o-cha, which has focused on creating the participation of every sector for solving problems and management using policies that are referred to as public policy. This is a guiding framework for the implementation of the economic policies of the government that aim to address the weaknesses of populist policy as mentioned for the benefit of the people, which is an important goal, and to push the power toward development of a sustainable foundational econcomy.