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The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XII, 2020

very big gap between the top 20 per cent and the next 20 per cent, even though
we can guess that those at the top are more likely to have concealed their
real wealth. There are some problems with these official data, but other sources

confirm the pattern. Duangmanee Laovakul has made the first nationwide
analysis of land distribution based on land titles. Her study shows a very
skewed distribution of land with a Gini Index of a staggering 0.88. The top tenth
own 61 per cent of all titled land. The bottom tenth own 0.1 per cent. The biggest
landholder has 100,000 hectares. Duangmanee (2016a; 2016b) makes a strong
case for taxing wealth on grounds of efficiency and equity.

Inequality, Politics and Instability

Political conflicts in the last decade has made Thai politics unstable.
The World Bank (2016) noted that in the past the Thai economy could maintain
high economic growth rates even in the throes of a series of coups. But since
the early 2000s, political instability has hurt economic growth for many years.
Governance indices—especially on freedom of expression, accountability and
political stability—have all declined, while the trend in Thailand’s neighbors
has been opposite. The Thai bureaucracy used to act as a cushion to any political
difficulties, but its quality and effectiveness have declined. The World Bank
cautioned that Thailand may not be able to achieve the goal of inclusive growth,
and predicted that poverty and inequality will continue to be Thailand’s major
challenges in the near future. The World Bank suggested that the Thai government
should consider supporting the bottom 40 percent of households via subsidies

on education, employment and social security (World Bank, 2016).
In the last few years, the refusal to address the issues of income and wealth
inequality in Thailand has partially dissolved. Promoting equality now figures

in the national plan. The mainstream think tank has made studies and policy
proposals (TDRI, 2015). Political parties have included the issue in their electoral
programs.
This shift is partly a reflection of the international debates on the issue.
More significantly, it is a result of Thailand’s political conflict of the past decade.
Some people (but not all) have realized that inequality lies behind this conflict in

some way. Kobsak Pootrakul, a member of the National Assembly in 2015,

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