The construction of royal charisma and de-accountability: the Thai monarchy under King Bhumibol (1948–1980)

Abstract

This article examines how Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej constructed royal charisma and employed political practices prior to the Prem era to distance himself from political crises involving student movements, military governments, and episodes of state violence. It argues that these practices can be interpreted as a systematic strategy of de-accountability, a concept developed from Weber’s theory of political accountability and further conceptualized as an early evolutionary form of McCargo’s framework of network monarchy, which later became more institutionalized during the Prem era. The article traces the maturation of de-accountability from its relatively fragmented and indecisive manifestations in the late 1950s to a more coherent and strategic form in the late 1970s. This evolution, it contends, laid the ideological and practical foundations for the emergence of network monarchy. Emphasizing that King Bhumibol’s de-accountability was grounded in carefully managed charismatic legitimacy, the article argues that this concept should not be regarded as universally applicable to political actors beyond its specific monarchical and historical context. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative historical–interpretive approach, employing theory-driven textual analysis to examine how Buddhist symbolism and institutional practices contributed to the construction of political legitimacy in modern Thailand.