The political economy of telecommunications liberalisation in Thailand

Abstract

The last decade has seen rapid changes in Thailand's socio-economic structures, with many emerging forces, such as the middle class and the urban populace, the NGOs, and numerous political parties, assuming active roles in society and politics. Business has become, more generally, one of the most important forces of all, and its dramatic growth during this period has been the main factor behind Thailand's impressive economic growth and industrialisation. The telecommunications revolution taldng place in Thailand since the 1980s exemplifies the country's multifarious changes, which have transformed the political power and status of business and also its relationships with other political forces. The explosive growth in local telecommunications business, and the growing maturity of party-based politics since the 1970s, have resulted in the winding back of bureaucratic power and of its control over one of the most regulated industries in Thailand. This thesis studies the changing character of state-society relations in Thailand during the past decade by focusing on the telecommunications industry, which has become one of the most important economic sectors of the country. Importantly, major political and economic interests are actively involved in this industry. The thesis examines the privatisation and gradual liberalisation of the telecommunications sector during the past decade and the political dynamics behind these policies, as well as the regulatory reform measures attempted by the various political regimes. It also reviews the political and bureaucratic corruption occurring within the telecommunications sector and their political implications, and the policy-making processes of the state in issuing telecommunications licenses to the private sector. The issues of technology and the effects of the state to establish Thailand as a regional telecommunications centre are also discussed to better understand the dynamics of telecommunications reform and its special place in the political economy of contemporary Thailand. This thesis argues that the bureaucracy is no longer the dominant power in Thai politics, and that Thailand has moved away from the former 'bureaucratic polity' towards a more pluralistic socio-political system in which a broadly-based 'liberalisation coalition' has emerged. Various case studies in telecommunications policy-making are examined which reveal that the old-style institutional conflicts between the bureaucracy and extrabureaucratic forces have gradually been transformed into coalitional conflicts between a pro-reform coalition and a more conservative coalition. While both coalitions are marked by shifting ideas and changing positions of the major interests and actors involved, the emerging political alignment between the technocrats, business, and political parties have proved to be the mainstay of the 'liberalisation coalition', playing the most influential role in the politics of telecommunications liberalisation in Thailand. It further contends that political parties have increasingly become the channel through which the interests of the pro-reform and their rivalry, the more conservative coalitions, have coalesced.