Liberalism against the people: Learning to live with coups d’état

This article argues that a perceived liberal ‘defection’ to a 2006 military coup in Thailand can help illuminate the authoritarian face of liberalism during an existential crisis; more provisionally, it is proposed that the Thai experience may provide lessons for understanding liberal decisionism. Detailing a single case has the advantage of embedding the discussion in cultural, historical and political detail without which the action is incomprehensible. The article applies decisionist and morphological theory and historical analysis as it explores the factors and motives leading to liberal coup complicity. The article’s chief objective is to make intelligible a form of liberal extraconstitutional decisionism in a non-western setting.