The Man who initiated Political Economy in Thailand, Dr. Preecha Piamphongsant: The Concept Idea of Political Economy

Abstract

Political economy is a new field of study in Thailand, compared to other fields such as political science and law. There are two types of study on Thai political economy. In the past, this field of study was not part of educational institutes and was interested merely by scholars. Since political economy is based on understanding of the world and society on academic foundation with creative criticism for guiding a society to a new change, it resulted in dissatisfaction from authorities during the governance of dictatorship. Nevertheless, after the governance of the country was changed into democracy, political economy has become a part of university study. In 1976, the first lecture on political economy for students was held at the Faculty of Economics, Thammasart University. The reason making political economy become well-known was the foundation of political economy group which was an important school of thought at the Faculty of Economics, Chulalongkorn University in 1979. At present, there are courses of study in Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral Degrees at the Faculty of Political Science and Law, Burapa University. The key person who initiated, laid the foundation of, and propagated the concept of Political economy in Thailand was Dr. Preecha Piamphongsant. This research, thus, aimed to study the political economy theory of Dr. Preecha Piamphongsant, one of the most important political economy scholars of Thailand.