Abstract
Royal Capitalism: Wealth, Class and Monarchy in Thailand explores the reign of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, or Rama IX, who was monarch from 1946–2016. Political scientist Puangchon Unchanam asks how – when monarchies around Europe were being dismantled and/or transforming into ‘bicycle monarchies’ (a term used to describe the informal monarchies of northern Europe) with limited, ceremonial roles – the Thai royal family not just survived, but thrived as one of the world’s wealthiest monarchies. Unchanam’s central proposition is that throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century, the Thai monarchy has reshaped itself in response to global capitalism. That is, rather than being an archaic and anachronistic institution, the Thai monarchy under Rama IX operates through models of corporate wealth and power. As Unchanam shows, it ‘accumulates capital in the market economy as the biggest conglomerate in the domestic market’ (p. 5), forging business partnerships with corporate elites, buying shares in stock markets, and producing marketable goods for sale. Unchanam demonstrates how Marx’s assumption that the monarchy would disappear under capitalism was inaccurate. Rather, Thai monarchy – and, as my own work argues (Clancy, 2020), other monarchies around the world – has been given new life under ‘new’ forms of global capital.
Royal Capitalism comprises five chapters, plus a substantial introduction. In Chapter 1, Unchanam maps a fascinating history of the development of the Thai monarchy, from the 13th century to the crowning of Rama IX in 1946. One of the key strengths of the book, and what makes it especially valuable for readers in the cultural studies field, is how it makes use of the historical present; it considers how contemporary manifestations of monarchy are always embedded in cultural, economic and social histories, and that shifts can be mapped through time. This chapter demonstrates precisely how monarchy engaged with the shift from feudalism where wealth was accumulated through ‘forced levies, compulsory labor services, and trade monopolies’ (p. 62), to industrial capitalism where it accumulated wealth through ‘appropriat[ing] surpluses via a new tax system, and acted like a bourgeois enterprise by investing its capital in banking, manufacturing, and land development’ (pp. 62–63). The Thai crown illustrated its ability to adapt and reshape itself in response to global changes, in order to reproduce its wealth and power.
Throughout the book, Unchanam makes use of the term ‘bourgeois monarchy’. In response to the overthrow of the absolute monarchy in the early-20th century, Unchanam argues that the Thai courtiers became ‘image managers’ (p. 110), where choreographed representations depicted a ‘bourgeois monarchy’ (p. 66) in touch with ‘ordinary’ people. The ‘godlike, prodigal and extravagant’ (p. 30) presence of the monarch disappeared, and in the reign of Rama IX was replaced with images of the hardworking king, the frugal king, the father king and the cosmopolitan king. These drew on national ideologies of ‘hard work, self-reliance, and austerity’ (p. 104) in order to maintain ‘political legitimacy and popular support rather than resentment and revolution from the bourgeoisie itself’ (p. 66). Chapter 2, ‘The Rise and Triumph of the Bourgeois Crown’, tracks precisely this shift in representations. It argues that business deals, corporate donations to royal events/projects, and joint ventures with commercial companies, for example, positioned the King as an active component in the Thai economy helping to (re)produce wealth and prosperity for all.
In Chapter 3, Unchanam expands upon this to consider how this ‘bourgeois monarchy’ was communicated to audiences and popularised in media culture. Unchanam draws on Susan Buck-Morss’ term ‘iconocracy’ to describe how in contemporary society, sovereign power is disseminated, and ‘believe[d] in’ (p. 122) through the mass media rather than as a form of religion. For example, the chapter opens by describing how Thais refer to the king as ‘Dad’, creating affective familial ideologies of paternalism and care. Unchanam’s argument about how both the Thai palace ‘image managers’ (p. 110) and the middle-class bourgeois public were responsible for the popularisation of this image is fascinating, and speaks to cultural studies research on ideology and representation. However, the chapter is missing cultural theory as a framework. Buck-Morss’ term ‘iconocracy’ specifies royal media power, whereas it would have been interesting to hear how Rama IX’s approach to media engagement corresponds with broader representations in media culture and modes of media production, which have been extensively explored in celebrity studies, for example. This would have expanded Unchanam’s argument about how ideologies of paternalistic care came to be through processes of mediation and interpretation, and how they are then negotiated and understood by media audiences.
Chapter 4 describes the limits of affectionate representations of Thai monarchy. Throughout the 20th century, inequality in Thailand continued to rise. While the ‘monarchy successfully won the hearts and minds of the urban bourgeoisie’ (p. 215) through capitalist logics, the working classes suffered under the same system’s hands. The monarchy continued to depend on ‘military intervention and the draconian law of lèse-majesté’ (p. 215; the imprisonment of those who defame or insult the monarchy, Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code) to maintain its power among these citizens. When the electorate voted for a political party that offered an alterative to capitalism, the Thai monarchy demonstrated the limits of its ‘progressive’ values by ‘frequently interven[ing] in political and judicial conflicts’ (p. 215) and eventually employing military force to overthrow the government. This chapter illustrates how sovereign power continues to be negotiated in contemporary Thailand, as ‘old’ laws and obligations can be brought back into use when public coercion is required, despite suppositions and claims of ‘democracy’.
The concluding chapter briefly explores the death of Rama IX in October 2016, and the crowning of Rama X. As Unchanam notes, it is still too early to tell if this king will take a similar approach to his father, although some examples, such as sending a New Year Card to his subjects featuring informal photographs and cartoons, suggest this will indeed be the case.
This book has implications for a wide range of interdisciplinary research in Thailand and beyond, and Unchanam concludes by sketching some of these implications out. First, the book provides a fascinating account of Thai politics in the 20th century, considering how economic, political and cultural systems feed off one another as forms of national governance. I would extend this to argue that it corresponds with the specific field of cultural politics, and how culture shapes social and political understandings. The book’s contributions to the study of other monarchies is another obvious comparison, and indeed, my own work argues that the British monarchy can be understood as a capitalist corporation, accumulating wealth, profit, and ultimately power (Clancy, 2020). Furthermore, Unchanam points out that Donald Trump’s ‘wealthy, powerful, and extravagant life… makes him look like no one more than a king’ (p. 235), and in fact, his own corporate political dynasty makes him an ‘identical twin [to Rama IX and X] from afar’ (p. 235). Indeed, wealthy dynasties extending their hold on global wealth (e.g. the Bransons) highlights the necessity and urgency of grappling with monarchical forms of power in a late capitalist age. In the context of conservative far-right politics, rising inequalities and the accumulation of wealth among a tiny elite, there is no more relevant time to be thinking about the original elite dynasties: monarchies. Unchanam’s book is an important contribution to this project.
