FutureForward Format: Hardback

Future Forward deals with a remarkable phenomenon in Thailand's recent politics: the rise of a new party led by Thanathorn Juangroongruankit, a wealthy, charismatic politician who upended conventional understandings of how elections work in the country. One year after Future Forward was founded, it became the third largest party in parliament. Another year on, it was summarily dissolved by the Constitutional Court. This is the first book to examine the most interesting new force to emerge in Thai politics for two decades, one also exploring the wider dynamics of political leadership, party formation and voter behaviour in a society where popular participation was largely suppressed after the 2014 military coup. Based on exclusive interviews with party leaders and a wide range of Thai-language sources, it examines how Future Forward succeeded in mobilising so much electoral support, whilst also arousing intense hostility from the conservative forces demanding its dissolution.

Duncan McCargo is Director of the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies and Professor of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen. A leading specialist on the politics of Thailand, his books include the best-selling Thaksinization of Thailand (co-authored), the award-winning Tearing Apart the Land: Islam and Legitimacy in Southern Thailand, and most recently Fighting for Virtue: Justice and Politics in Thailand.

Anyarat Chattharakul is an affiliated researcher at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. A former diplomat, she received her PhD from the University of Leeds in 2007. Her articles on Thailand’s electoral politics have been published in Contemporary Southeast Asia and the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs.