Income Inequality and Uncertain Democracy in Thailand

Abstract

The interconnections between inequality, economic growth and political change have long formed one of the major threads of historical scholarship. Marxist analysis focuses upon growing inequality among classes to explain revolution and the demise of capitalism, while other analyses have seen, on the contrary, a positive association between liberal parliamentary democracy, economic growth and equality. On the theoretical side, an impetus to research was provided by Kuznets’ seminal article published in 1955 which suggested that advanced industrial countries would experience a period of growing income inequality in the initial stages of growth, followed by growing equality.¹ Kuznets did not explicitly relate his findings to political systems, though he speculated on the instability that might be produced in a period of growing income inequality. Scholars looked at income disparities both within and between nations, and variations on the grand themes of inequality and authority can be found in the literature on centres and peripheries, on world systems, on ‘oriental despotism’, in the writings of Barrington Moore, Mancur Olsen, and many others.

Earlier versions of this chapter were given at the International Workshop on Income Distribution and Social-Political Stability, Hitotsubashi University (Tokyo, 26-28 January 1996) and at the University of New England Economic History Seminar Series (September 1996). I am most grateful for the helpful comments received.