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Thailand National and Urban Structures: Class and Status
Although in the 1980s the hierarchy of social status or
prestige and the hierarchy of political and economic power in the
rural community overlapped, a disjunction of sorts existed
between them at the national level. A rich villager--other things
being equal--wielded political and economic power and had
prestige. In the national system, the hierarchy of status began
with the hereditary nobility--the royal family and the holders of
royal titles. None of these people were poor; the royal family
owned much land and some of its members had political influence.
The royal family was not part of the ruling class, however, nor
did it control the economy. The ruling class consisted of several
levels, the uppermost of which comprised the military and, to a
lesser extent, the bureaucratic elite.
In general, the Thai accorded high status to those who
wielded power, and the prestige accorded the highest bureaucrats
was consistent with a historical pattern, even if in modern times
these bureaucrats were rarely members of the royal family.
Whether the position of the military was fully legitimated in the
eyes of most Thai was uncertain. The military was given
deference, but it was not clear that its members were freely
accorded esteem.
Below the military and bureaucratic elites were those in high
government posts who performed the tasks requiring considerable
knowledge, technical competence, or simply experience in the ways
of bureaucracy. Like the bureaucratic elites, these upper middlelevel bureaucrats were well educated, often holding undergraduate
or graduate degrees from foreign universities. From the point of
view of the Thai, such officeholders had much prestige even if
they were not the primary wielders of power.
Positions at the highest levels of the military and the
bureaucracy brought very good incomes to those holding them.
Often these positions provided access to other sources of income,
including large landholdings and other real estate, or
participation in the actual ownership of businesses, often in
conjunction with Chinese businessmen. With some exceptions, the
latter exercised day-to-day control of financial, commercial, and
industrial organizations and institutions.
The social status of the Chinese economic elite was not
clear. After World War II, a limited number of Chinese business
families, who had begun as middlemen financing aspects of
agricultural production and marketing, became bankers and
industrial and commercial entrepreneurs. These families had
considerable economic power, and they clearly influenced some
political decisions through the Thai military and bureaucrats
with whom they had connections. Whether the Thai in general
granted them the prestige ordinarily given to those holding high
posts in government was another matter.
These Chinese businessmen should be distinguished from the
many Thai in the military and the civil bureaucracy who had
Chinese ancestry. In many cases, this Chinese ancestry was
several generations removed. In any case, such individuals were
considered Thai, operated chiefly in a Thai social and cultural
milieu, and were evaluated on the same social scale as other
Thai.
Until the 1970s, persons who were fully Chinese entered the
bureaucracy only at the middle levels or, if higher, as technical
staff. This was in part a matter of Thai policy, in part a matter
of Chinese orientation. The Chinese were not indifferent to
political power or administrative skill as desirable qualities or
as sources of prestige, but they adapted to the limits imposed by
their minority status. Within the Chinese community there was a
hierarchy of political influence, and there were organizations
(ranging from chambers of commerce to community groups and mutual
aid societies) in which Chinese had the opportunity to exercise
their power and skills. Even there, however, political power and
prestige flowed to those who had been successful as
entrepreneurs, whereas among the Thai, achievement in the
military or the bureaucracy preceded access to significant
economic opportunities or resources. Chinese in the economic
elite who moved into important positions in Chinese-centered
organizations or, occasionally, other organizations, not only
gained prestige within the Chinese community but also became the
links between that community and Thai elites, particularly with
respect to the establishment of economic ties.
By the early 1970s, significant numbers of Chinese had been
admitted to the higher bureaucracy. According to one analyst,
they held roughly 30 percent of the posts in the special grades
(upper ranks) at that time. Presumably they were the sons and
daughters of wealthy entrepreneurs and had acquired the higher
education necessary for admission to the bureaucracy's upper
ranks.
Below the hereditary nobility and the ruling class was a
socially and occupationally heterogeneous middle class that
emerged in the years after World War II, especially after 1960.
Its members were diverse with respect to their control over
wealth, their social status, and their access to power. The
simplest distinction within this amorphous category was based
partially on income and partially on occupation, but
subcategories thus drawn were rather mixed. The wealthier segment
of this middle class (for convenience, the upper middle class)
consisted of bureaucrats and military men at middle levels
(including higher provincial officials), salaried administrative
and managerial workers in private enterprise, middle-level
businessmen, provincial notables and landlords living in
provincial towns, and professionals. A much larger group, the
petty bourgeoisie, comprised those who provided a range of
services, largely in Bangkok, to the ruling class, the upper
middle class, and to tourists and other foreigners. Often this
petty bourgeoisie consisted of small-scale independent
businessmen, some of them shop owners, others furnishing their
services contractually. Some were salaried clerical staff. Both
upper and lower segments of this middle category include many
Chinese as well as Thai.
In the Thai scale of values, higher prestige tended to be
accorded to those in government employment and perhaps to those
in the professions. The private sector as a source of substantial
income was a relatively new idea to the Thai, however, and their
scale of values might change as an entrepreneurial bourgeoisie
began seeking to have its status validated. In any case, the
elements in the upper segment of this middle category could be
said to share the same outlook and values or the same political
status implied in the notion of class. The position of
bureaucrats and notables (middle-level businessmen and
landowners) who lived in provincial towns was of particular
interest. On their home ground they exercised considerable power,
formally and informally, but they owed this power at least in
part to their connections, usually as clients to patrons in
Bangkok, although they in turn had clients at lower levels.
There was also a lower urban stratum, but this too was
heterogeneous. On the one hand, there were the more or less
steady wage workers in commercial and industrial enterprises,
mainly in Bangkok (and in mining outside Bangkok). On the other
hand, there were large numbers of persons, like the wage workers,
often from rural areas, who had no steady work and sought to eke
out a living by offering their services as unskilled labor.
There were two other urban groups that were not part of the
status hierarchy. Just as the monks of a village wat were
outside the local rural system of stratification but enjoyed a
special status, so too was the hierarchy of the sangha,
the highest elements of which were located in Bangkok. Within the
monkhood, the supreme patriarch and the Council of Elders
exercised considerable authority, and they were given a great
deal of deference by laymen, even those in the royal family and
the ruling class. They did not have significant power outside the
sangha, although some monks have had a substantial impact
on politics.
Also outside the urban status hierarchy--but sometimes with
higher incomes than those in the upper middle class and
themselves requiring the services of those in the lower middle
category--were the many men and women engaged in illegal
activities that were nonetheless countenanced or protected. Among
them were prostitutes, pimps, and narcotics dealers. In the mid1980s , the number of women in Bangkok estimated to be engaged in
prostitution or in related services ranged from 100,000 to 1
million. Some observers noted that prostitution was firmly
entrenched in modern Thailand as a result of historical,
economic, and social factors. The majority of Bangkok prostitutes
were rural migrants providing economic support to relatives back
in the country, which was expected of Thai daughters within the
extended stem family system. In other words, Thai prostitutes
were not fleeing from a family background or rural society that
oppressed women in conventional ways but were engaging in an
entrepreneurial move designed to sustain the family units of the
rural economy, which had come under increasing pressure. Since
these women usually did not reveal the source of their
remittances back to the village, their families could retain or
gain status based upon their earnings.
Data as of September 1987
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