Politics is the activities of the government, members of law-making organizations, or people who try to influence the way a country is governed

Politial Ideologies
Conservatism:
.Emphasies
-tradition
- authority
-property rights
. Subranch:
. Nationalism
-nation, community
- group over individual

• Environmenalism
  .Green Movement
  .Sustainability over profit

• Liberalism
  .The individual, freedom, reason
  . Free speech
  . Free market

  . Positive liberty

Socialism
.Community
. Rights of working class
.Getting rid of class system

Intro to Politics
What is politics?

• Who get’s what, why, when, how

• Institutions and mechanism by which territroy is governed

• Distributes resources

• Define norms by which political ativities are governed

International businesses prefer

• free markets, low-regulation countries

• can operate in every type

• Theoretically, democratic government preferred de to more transparency (gov’t policies and changes clear)

Classication

-This is a specturm, not category

-Based on governance and economy

How to classify a system:

How leaders are elected

Who has power

What does the system revolve around

The way things are organised

Relationship between leader and leaded

Spectrums that you can look at
1. Collectivism vs individualism

• Colectivism

  • Rights of community

  • Role of community

• Individualism

  • Rights of individual

  • Role of individual

2. Rural vs urban

• Rural

  • Traditions strong

  • Perception of community important. Therefore, conservatice thinking

• Urban

  • Developed infrastructure

    • energy

    • transportation

    • healthcare

    • food

    • sewage

    • heating/cooling

• Foreign investments and companies

Perception of individualism. Therefore, liberal thinking

Other factors that contribute to being collectivist or individualist thinking:
. Wealth difference
- wealthy people think they made it out on their own (individual)
- poor people want to be taken care of (collective)
- wealthy people think they have a duty to society (collective)

. Gender (access to wealth)
. Religion (some religions prioritise the good of the community)
. Colonial history (understands importance of collectivism)
. Geo-politics

3. Democracy vs authoritarian

• Democracy

  • Exists in astate of constant motion

  • Source of legitimacy from ‘regular’ participation form people

  • Can be either direct of representative

    • Athen’s democracy is very different from today’s perception. Only free men can vote.

• Authoritarian

  • Single leader

• Source of legitimacy

  • National myth

  • Religion (theocracy)

  • Controlled information

  Facism(appeal to mythical past

  
  4. Democracy vs Totalitarianism

• Democracy

  • Reactionary (ultraconservatice politics)

  • Liberal (not bound by authoritarianism)

  • Conservative

  • Radical (very different from traditional)

• Totalitarianism

  • authoritarianism -the belief that people must obey completely and not be allowed freedom to act as they wish

  • facism - belif from past (ex. racial purity), use of force to quell dissent

  • communism (pre 20th century)- free association, absence of coercion, absence of state power

  • communism today - lack of active participation from governed

• dictatorship - personal rather than systematic

  Lists:

• Liberal socialism

  • Anarchism (collective economics)

  • Social democracy

  • Social liberalism

• Liberal free market

  • Conservative liberalism

  • US libertarians

    Authoritarian socialism

  • Theocratic socialism (Iran at start?)

  • Communism

    Authoritarian free market

  • Christian democracy

  • Conservatism

  • Facism

Thailand vs Denmark Political System Research

Success: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being followed (1948) with emphasis on food, drinking water access, education, freedom of speech;  effectiveness following though policies, and happiness of citizens. All scores need to be in the top 50%

Thailand Government Structure

• Constitutional monarchy with monarch as Head of State

• Parliamentary democracy with multiple parties (2023) and PM as Head of Government. Most of the data is from years without a multi-party system.

• 1997-2019: most seats in Parliament belong to two major parties with opposing ideas.

• Monarch plays key role as a symbol of soverignty, politcally neutral.

  • Lese’ majeste law forbids defaming, insulting, threatenting monarch, consort, heir apparent, or regent. Up to 15 years in prison.

  • Monarch is so important due to the image of Rama IV with Sarit Thanarat in 1957 coup

  • Coup leaders show signs of deferene to give themselves a source of legitimacy. The monarch can’t refute those claims because they have to be politically neutral.

  • Appoints cabinet members

  • Final approval of bill

• Military is also influential in politics. Has rights to intervene in times of crisis

  • 60 years of former or servin military officers leading the government

  • 19 coup attempts from 1932-2014

  • All members of Senate appointed by military

  • Current constitution written by military

  Governmental organization

  1. Drafted by Cabinet

  2. Reviewed by Parliament

  3. Sent to monarch for Royal Assent

• Legislative arm - writes and approves bills; review budget

  • The National Assembly - rejects, amends, writes bills; reviews budget

  • Senate - approves bills that were approved by House, then sends to PM, who sends it to the king

    • All members apponinted by military

• Executive arm - manages government, proposes bills, which are sent to NA to review

  • Cabinet - PM and ministers, head of each minitry of government. Controls government apart form Parliament and Courts

  • PM- implements laws, recommends cabinet memebrs to the king

• Judiciary - interprets laws to solve legal disputes

  • Court of Justice - solves legal disputes. Consists of Courts of First Instance, Courts of Appeal, and Supreme Court

  • Constitutional Court - decides whether bills are constitutional

  • Administrative Court - settles cases regarding to hwo the government administers the law

  
  Denmark Government Structure
  How a bill is passed:

  1. Drafted by Cabinet

  2. Reviewed by Parliament

  3. Sent to monarch for Royal Assent

• Parliamentary democracy

• Constitutional monarchy with monarch as Head of State and Prime Minister as Head of Government

• No military influence

• No lese’ majeste’ law

  Governmental Organization

• Legislative -reviews bills. Parliament (Folketing)- made up of several parties that form a coalition, no party rules by itself. Current coalition is Social Democratic, Liberal, Moderates

• Executive - drafts bills, lead governemnt

  • PM- Head of Government, leads Cabinet, in charge of oversea territories (Faroe Isalnds and Greenland), in charge of constitutional affairs

  • Cabinet ministers- heads of government minitres, gives instructions to civil service

• Judiciary - settles legal disputes. Operates separately from Parliament and Cabinet

  • Supreme Court - judges cases that determine how similar cases should be judged, exemaines how constitutional bills are

  • High Court - judges appealed cases from District Courts

  • Distirct Court - initally judges all cases

  Criteria for Successful Political System

  1. Human Rights. May not apply to immigrants, which denmark is crruently strugglign to integrate. Imigration policies are gettign stricter.

• Right to Adequate Living

  • Food - Global Food Security Index (2022)

    • Thailand

      • 60.1/100

      • Food afforability - 83.7/100. Available sustainability low is 50-60. Quality and safety is 45.3.

      • Food access is decreased with covid

    • Denmark

      • 77.8/100

      • Food insecurity is 6%

      • Households below OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developement) poverty threshold and recieve benefits usually have only one parent and/or lower education level

  • Drinking water

    • Thailand

      • 96% access in 2017

      • Quality bound to change because of farm chemicals, untreated sewage, and industrial waste

    • Denmark

      • 97% have access in 2017

      • 50% of drinkign water boreholes contain pesticides and other pollutants

  • Education

    • Thailand

      • Literacy is 94% in 2021

      • Primary school enrollment is 101.59% in 2022

    • Denmark

      • 99.52% in 2021

      • 100.3% primary enrollemtn in 2021

      • While expenditure on education is high, needs to work on educational performacne

• Right to Free Speech

  • Thailand

    • Freedom House score - 1/4

    • Criticism of governemnt, monarchy, military leads to risk of imprisonment, harassment, or physical attack

    • Since 2022, speech-related offenses casued hundreds to face prosecution. Ex. human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa sentenced to 4 years in jail in a speech in 2020 calling for monarchy reformation

  • Denmark

    • 4/4 Private conversations have multiple persepctives without restricted topics

• Efficiency of government

  • Thailand

    • Corruptions perception index 35/100 2023

    • Vote-buying is common, especially towards poor people

  • Denmark

    • 90/100 corruptions perception index 2023

    • Multiple-party coalition calls out each other

• Happiness of citizens (wolrd happiness index).

  • Thailand

    • 60/150

  • Denmark

    • 2/150

    • Welfare systems help citizens in need

    • High minimum wage, high quality of life, work-life balane

    • Every citizen has access to healthcare and education. Compensation present for income loss due to unemployment, disability (etc)

How political systems affect success

Thailand:

1. Cabinet with ministers who are specialists in their area let people have basic needs (food, water, education) fulfilled- Ministry of Sanitation, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Education. However, the worst of them, food (60.1/100) can be due to the coups and political instability, which forces farmers out of land.

2. Military power in politics, caused by coup leader in the 1932 coup claiming they have the right to intervene and the 1957 coup legitimizing themselves by appealing to the monarchy (the monarchy cannot refute these claims) causes:

   .need to quell dissent with violence in order to hold on to power.

   . Lese’ majeste’ being abused to stay in power
   . Politicians who disagree with the military are kicked out of Parliament, which leads to lack of talents.
   . The Chanocha government rely on the state security services to stay in power, who happen to also be corrupted.

   . Thai courts after 2014 become politicised
   . Security systems become corrupt because of patronage system and involvement in politics

   . A government that is headed by military where criticism is not allowed leads to no improvements
   . Corruption leads to lack of social welfare systems, which lead to less

   
   While Srettha Thavisin’s governernment has a multi-party system, military influence is still strong. Also, the data retrieved is from the years under Chanocha’s junta, so a multi-party system is part of the reasons.

3. Constitutional monarchy where monarch is politcally neutral.
   The monarch cannot object coup leader using their image as a source of legitimization or when the lese’ majeste’ law is being abused. For example, a justification for the 2006 coup was becasue Thaksin Shinawatra was claimed to not respect the monarchy. This leads to coups which leads to corruption, lack of free speech, low happiness score.

Denmark:

1. Cabinet with ministers in their area of expertise distribute food, water, and education

2. Multi-party system allows for criticism from other parties, which means that any mistake in general can be discussed. This is especially true for cases of free speech, government efficiency, and happiness (caused by healthcare, education, poverty prevention etc, trust in institution).

3. Lack of military influence leads to free speech, less corruption.