Thailand

Thailand, unique among the nations of Southeast Asia, has no colonial history. The Thai government, unlike those of neighboring counties, has not evolved under imposed foreign systems. While counties all around her were experiencing domination by foreign governments, Thailand, free of such domination, was developing its own bureaucratic form of government. The incendiary conditions surrounding the Indo-chinese section of the world, especially Viet-Nam, Laos, and Thailand, make mandatory an attempt to understand the baffling political milieu in which these conditions occur.

The author carefully traces the processes of change that have taken place in Thai politics and administration from the mid-nineteenth to the mid twentieth century, then takes a close look at contemporary Thai government as a bureaucratic polity. The final chapters are devoted to a more microscopic view of the bureaucratic life in Thailand. Taking the administration of the rice program as a focus, the author probes and dissects the cultural and social changes now taking place.