The Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, 1997: A Blueprint for Participatory Democracy

The article focuses on three topics related to the 1997 Thailand constitution: constitutional supremacy, citizen participation in governance, and constitutional mechanisms for the promotion of accountability and transparency. It briefly recounts the history leading up to the drafting of the constitution, including Thailand’s democratic history and the pro-democracy movement of the 1990’s. The author analyzes the above three issues as they existed before the drafting of the constitution and how the 1997 constitution seeks to address problems of the past. The article concludes with challenges for implementation of the constitution.