Movements and monuments: student movements for “democracy” in 1973 and 2020 and public monuments in Thailand

Abstract

"Thai democracy" is usually defined from the statist perspective. It is frequently associated with the bureaucratic elite, military, capitalists, middle class, and the monarchy. This qualitative historical study aims to explain the definition and development of Thai democracy using a different lens—a viewpoint of Thailand's 1973 and 2020 student movements and public monuments. It follows the historical research design and analyzes historical accounts to understand the installation, purpose, symbol, meaning, and transformation of the Democracy Monument, the Constitution Monuments, replicas of the Democracy Monument, the 14th of October 1973 Memorial, and the Victory Monument. Through student demonstrations, protesters transformed these public monuments into venues of democracy and challenged their symbols and meanings. Given the relationship between the student movements and public monuments and the operational definitions and characteristics of democracy in the Thai political setting, it is noteworthy to examine how the Thai student activists define their notion of democracy using these monuments. This study uses various theories on political spaces, public memory, and urban social movements to analyze the data collected from primary and secondary sources. It also applies existing discourses on Thai democracy to weave the connection between the student movements and public monuments in Thailand.