Privy Council and Modern Monarch in Thai Political Transition

Abstract

This paper aims to present two important points for the superior understanding of Thailand political crisis, of which before and after coup d'éta on the elected government in the year 2006. It is analyzed with the framework of the Privy Council political roles that is relied theoretically on the modern monarch ideology. First, the author explained the root of the Privy Council, in order to analyze the possibility of political conditions of the Privy Council as a representative of the modern monarch ideology. Second, the authors analyzed the pattern of exercise of power of the Privy Council, with the modern monarch ideology. In addition, the characteristic of using such power under the circumstance of Thailand political crisis was described. he Privy Council has been playing the major role of monarchy representative. It represents some monarchy’s functions. To explain, it transfers the monarchy’s political speeches to the public sphere, executes the royal activities as the representative, provides the political view points during the tense political circumstances, and represents the political power, in which the People's Alliance for Democracy ( PAD ), Royal Thai army, and the Court of Justice judges needed to ask for the political assistance. Eventually, this paper also proposes the arguments on the modern monarch ideology of Privy Council. Consequently, it will lead to the sharper and the unambiguous explanation of Thailand political crisis.