Apipol Sae-Tung “Legality, Legitimacy, and Authoritarian Survival: A Case Study of Thai Politics from the 2014 Military Coup”

This article examines the use of the law and legal mechanisms to secure authoritarian power and argues that an authoritarian regime with legitimacy problems relies on these tools for its survival. The study explores Thai politics after the military coup of 2014 as a case study, using content analysis on the Thai constitution and related laws. The findings show that the use of the law is a response to the monarchy’s legitimacy problem: the monarchy uses the military as its agency and the law as a tool. This article concludes that the military government has successfully controlled Thai politics by establishing the National Strategy under the auspices of the 2017 constitution, which was promulgated under the military government for the monarchy’s survival. The 2017 constitution and the political developments under the mechanisms set up in the constitution also resulted in a new form of monarchy-military-political party partnership in Thai politics.

Keywords: legality and legitimacy, authoritarian survival, military coup, Thailand