The Authoritarian Middle Class

The usual assumption is that a growing middle class and democracy go together. Unfortunately, Thailand seems to be working to disprove that:

From her sensible trousers to her permed hair, Punyanuch Promsiriyat, 57, is the very image of a People Power revolutionary. Dictatorships all over the world have been brought down by people like her — respectable, middle-class citizens dedicated to democracy and justice. ... But this is a “people power” movement like few others. Its bête noire, Mr Samak, is a legitimately elected leader who was voted in just nine months ago.

Far from demanding more democracy, it is calling for a restriction of voting rights. Despite its claim to be a peaceful movement, this week the PAD's campaign turned deadly.

The Thai middle classes are rallying against politicians elected by the vast, poor majority that wants to take what the middle class has (or so the protesters think). The same dynamic can often by seen in China - those who have met with some success tend to support the government, and fear what the great unwashed masses would do if they could vote their own into power.

It's not a new dynamic - Aristotle worried about what would happen if the poor gained power through democracy too. Over the last couple hundred years, democracy has progressed along different lines that made it acceptable to the middle classes, leaving a link between growth and democracy in most people's minds. But it's possible that link is just circumstantial, and that in places like China and Thailand, the old contradictions between democracy and the non-poor are raising their ugly heads again.