Organizer: University of Hawaii Center for Southeast Asia Studies

Description:

In 2014, agitators began hanging banners in the North of Thailand calling for the creation of a separate Lanna state, an ethnonym based on a medieval kingdom located in the region. This event was linked to grievances regarding the suppression of the region’s democratic vote, beginning with the military coup of 2006. However, two puzzles about this Lanna ethno-regionalist movement remain. First, in all surveys both before and after these events, the Lanna region exhibits the strongest levels of Thai nationalism. Second, the other major region aggrieved by these same events—the Isan region of the Northeast—did not develop an ethno-nationalist movement. Selway argues that regions develop a particular style of nationalism as a result of two path-dependent historic processes: (1) the development of an autonomous and cohesive polity in the pre-modern era, and (2) the manner of the region’s incorporation into the Thai modern state. He argues that some styles of nationalism are associated with greater susceptibility to ethnic rhetoric, which frames grievances in ethnic terms, than others. He tests his theory using survey experiments that mimic the rhetoric of ethnic entrepreneurs.

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