In search of the ‘right’ kind of financialization: politics of financial inclusion in Thailand

Abstract

This thesis is a critical observation of the politics of financial inclusion in Thailand from 2001 until the present time. The systemic approach embedded in the Political Economy of Complex Interdependence encourages us to focus on the coevolution of financial innovation and regulation. With data collected through interviews, field observations, and doctrinal analysis, I argue that neoliberal axioms embedded in the first policies to expand financial services evolved to engender the financialization of everyday life under auspices of financial inclusion. Furthermore, how the interdependence of financial development and Thaksin's transformative policies recoupled subjects away from the state, and to the Shinawatra brand of politics. Subsequently, each action against the Shinawatra brand or imitation of his policies is an attempt at recoupling subjects back to the state.