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Kings in the Age of Nations: The Paradox of Lèse-Majesté as Political Crime in Thailand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

David Streckfuss
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Extract

The Thai monarchy, protected by the law of lèse-majesté, appears to be an anachronism in the age of nation-states. Over the past century, the spread of nationalism has leveled most monarchies, reducing kings (or queens) to the status of semiprivate individuals or preserving them as innocuous symbols. Usually considered mere remnants of feudal pasts, the laws protecting monarchies in the twentieth century have received little scholarly attention, even less perhaps in Thailand, where any critical analysis of the monarchy is discouraged by the threat of the lèse-majesté charge.

Type
Kings and Their People
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1995

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