In a new article published in Contemporary Southeast Asia, Prof. Allen Hicken, Dr. Napon Jatusripitak and I take a new look at Dr. Anek Laothamatas’ famous theory of Thailand being “a tale of two democracies.”

Rural and urban voters have now converged in significant ways, but there is still a distinct divide between densely populated urban areas and sparsely populated rural areas. Thailand’s constituencies have become similar to fried eggs, with the egg yolks and egg whites behaving differently.

A snippet of our findings: Using population density as a proxy for urbanization, we found that support for candidates affiliated with different parties are strongly correlated with the degree of urbanization at the constituency level.

Voters in more densely populated urban areas were much more likely to support the MFP compared to voters in rural areas, while support for Pheu Thai and Bhumjaithai was strongest in more rural constituencies.

Read the full piece in Contemporary Southeast Asia’s December volume. This volume contains a roundtable on the 2023 elections.

(Cover image credits)