This study challenges the prevailing view that Thailand's
democratization process in the 1990s was led by the active middle class.
It presents an alternative explanation, examining certain 'passive'
forces. The author argues the need to break free from the spell of the
assumption that the middle class is pro-democracy and turn attention
toward anti-democratization forces because the pace of political
democratization was slowed down by the presence of such forces. This
book will emphasize the fresh point of view that democratization was
advanced by appeasement of the forces that were reluctant to
democratization. The Japanese original of this book won an Ohira
Masayoshi Memorial Prize in 2003.