Since electoral violence in Thailand is province-specific, my research focuses specifically on the local factors that promote violent conflict. National-level factors cannot account for the very substantial geographical variation in levels of violence across the country, as data show that some provinces are more violent than others. Second, electoral violence in Thailand is unevenly distributed in spatial terms. These factors help to explain cross-temporal variation in electoral violence nationwide.
In explaining the changes in forms and patterns of violence over time, I focus on the patrimonial characteristics of the state, the changes in electoral and party systems, the impact of decentralization, and the relative importance of ideological politics. Despite predictions that the deep political polarization which occurred after the 2006 military coup would intensify electoral competition and produce higher levels of bloodshed during polling, electoral violence declined in 20. Thai society then observed a sharp rise in violence in the 20 elections. The intensity and degree of violence increased in the 1980s and remained relatively constant until the late 1990s. Election-related violence first manifested itself in the 19 elections. First, the patterns and degrees of violence have shifted over time. Arising from this are two important elements of variation that call for investigation. In the last fourteen national general elections from January 1975 to July 2011, including several local ones within the same period, hundreds of people have died or been injured as a result of election-related violence.
Apart from targeted assassinations, other forms of election-related violence include attacking polling stations on election day, bombing candidates' and vote canvassers' houses, threatening election-related personnel, burning of political parties' headquarters, and post-election mass protests. Since democratization began in the mid-1970s, electoral processes in Thailand have been. The main objective of my research is to identify the primary factors and processes that enable or foment violence in elections and to explain the variation in Thai electoral violence across time and space. To examine this relationship, I focus specifically on violence in Thai electoral politics. My research examines the relationship between political violence and democratic structures in Thailand since 1975.