Institutionalized Impact of Sufficiency Economy Philosophy on The Performance of Thailand’s Capitalism

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the institutionalized impact of the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) on the Thai economy by employing two theoretical approaches: Social Structure of Accumulation (SSA) and Cultural Political Economy (CPE). This thesis argues the SEP has been an important institutional process to become it become a predominant economic imaginary. The process began during the 1997 crisis when the SEP was introduced as a new cohering force to restore the nation’s confidence. This has been followed by a process in which the SEP has expanded its territory by engaging in wide-range of economic discourses. The imaginary then has been translated into national policy, retained and stabilized by royal-related projects and state institutions. However, an evaluation of five critical SSAs suggests that the SEP is not a key contributor in framing the pattern of accumulation except in the two interconnected SSAs of traditional culture and state actions. The SEP reinforces traditional culture and state actions that maintain profitability by exploiting a low-wage regime. The case studies of agrarian accumulation demonstrate that a form of hybridization has emerged in which rural actors have fused the SEP meaning to produce a new formation of the New Theory Agriculture (e.g. reversal of land distribution and the agricultural stages). The micro-analysis of SEP firms suggests that the SEP does not diminish the profit orientation that normally shapes capitalist firms. The pattern of SEP capital accumulation could take form as either relatively cooperative labour relations based on upskilling strategies or relatively conflictual relations based on despotic labour management. From an SSA perspective, the institutionalized impact of the SEP is not robust because it preserves the pre-existing course of accumulation rather than creating a radical political-economic transformation.