Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship 2012 The Role of the King in the Democratic Transition in Thailand Elizabeth A. Van Buskirk Claremont McKenna College Recommended Citation Van Buskirk, Elizabeth A., "The Role of the King in the Democratic Transition in Thailand" (2012). CMC Senior Theses. Paper 476. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/476 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you by Scholarship@Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in this collection by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Claremont McKenna College The role of the King in the Democratic Transition in Thailand Submitted to Professor Minxin Pei AND Dean Huang BY Elizabeth Van Buskirk FOR Senior Thesis (2011-2012) Dedicated To: My Mother, Father and Sister, with all my love. ACCKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is my pleasure to thank those who have made this thesis possible, which includes but its not limited to Professor Pei, The People’s Empowerment Foundation, Claremont Mckenna College and my family. First and foremost I would like to thank my reader, Professor Pei. The idea for this thesis is the result of taking two of his classes; “Democracy in Developing Countries” and “Chinese Politics.” These were two of the best classes I have ever taken in my entire academic career. It is due to Professor Pei that I was originally introduced to the idea of democratic theory, something which has been the focus of my education ever since. Additionally, Chinese Politics sparked my interest in the Asian region, where previously I had little experience.