Fragile Democratization When Military Forces Fear Losing Control over Transition: The Cases of Thailand and Myanmar

The military governments and political democratization processes in Thailand and Myanmar have been studied extensively, but there is a lack of research that reveals how the military governments played what role at key points in the process. With an introduction to the basic political realities of these two countries, and figures and tables to compare the seats held by the military and democratic camps in the last few elections, the author demonstrate the evolution of pro-military and pro-democratic parties in both countries. It is found that: first, the politics in both countries historically were heavily influenced by military forces. Second, the military in both countries actually tolerated a certain degree of democratization. Finally, when the military found that the democratization process was beyond their control, the military tended to intervene to slow down that democratization process.