Thai Political Innovations in the Post-2017 Constitution Era: From Domination to Transformation

Abstract

This academic article aims to examine political development and political innovation in Thailand during the period 2017–2025 (B.E. 2560–2568), a time in which Thai politics encountered both significant challenges and new opportunities. The analysis is structured around four main dimensions: (1) popular politics, as reflected in the movements of youth and the general public; (2) innovation in political parties and ideologies, particularly the emergence and roles of new-generation political parties such as the Future Forward Party and the Move Forward Party; (3) progress on issues of rights and equality, including efforts to advance marriage equality legislation, women’s rights, and freedom of expression; and (4) political communication and the use of digital technologies in electoral campaigning and social mobilization.
The findings indicate that, although Thailand continues to face structural political constraints—such as the power of constitutional mechanisms and unelected institutions, as well as the use of laws to restrict freedom of expression—the political innovations that have emerged nonetheless reflect the efforts of civil society and new political parties to bring democracy, human rights, and equality into the mainstream of Thai politics. This article therefore argues that Thai politics during this decade can be characterized as being in a state of “transitional politics” that remains incomplete with future trajectories depending on the dynamics between state power and popular forces in shaping sustainable structural reforms.