Constitution-Making in 21st-Century Thailand:The Continuing Search for a Perfect Constitutional Fit

Abstract

In the 21st century, the constitutional and political stability that Thailand has sought seems to be harshly convulsed by the occurrence of ‘colour-coded politics’ between the Red and Yellow factions from 2006. The conflict between the two factions resulted in two military coups in 2006 and 2014, which, in turn, led to the revocation of two permanent constitutions (those of 1997 and 2007) and the enactment of two new ones (those of 2007 and 2017) as well as the promulgation of two interim constitutions (those of 2006 and 2014). In this article, we will examine the constitution-making process in 21st-century Thailand based, in particular, on its two contesting sources of legitimization—that is, the conflict between global ideas of constitutionalism and its local alternative: Thai-ness.