New York, NY (PRWEB) February 16, 2010 Jakarta-based Equinox Publishing is pleased to announce the international availability of Federico Ferrara’s most current book, “Thailand Unhinged: Unraveling the Myth of a Thai-style Democracy” on 18 February 2010. “We are primarily recognized for publishing books about Indonesia, but I instantly loved the manuscript and wanted it for our catalog. Then, when I found not a single Thailand-based publisher would touch it, I knew it was anything we just had to publish,” mentioned Mark Hanusz, Founder and Publisher at Equinox. “Our initial book (“Bangkok Inside Out”) was banned for some silly purpose like not sufficient Thai individuals were smiling in it, so there’s a very good possibility we’ll be 2 for two with Thailand Unhinged.” Author Federico Ferrara explains, “Even though the timing of the book’s release is fortuitous, I do not believe I could have selected a far more opportune time had I been offered the chance. As the specter of a military coup returns to haunt the city of Bangkok, this book seeks to capture the intoxicating mixture of worry, hope, and frenzied anticipation that marks these fascinating occasions.” “Thailand Unhinged” gives a trenchant analysis of Thai politics and society more than the tumultuous years that followed the ouster of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thailand’s ongoing political crisis is explained by means of the prism of the country’s painful post-absolutist history a history marred by the systematic sabotage of any meaningful democratic development, the routine hijacking of democratic institutions, and the continued suffocation of the Thai people’s democratic aspirations orchestrated by an unelected ruling class in an increasingly desperate try to hold on to its power. The book involves scathing critiques of both Thaksin’s administration as nicely as the military-backed government that came to power in late 2008, following the week-long siege of the country’s busiest airports staged by the “yellow shirts” of the People’s Alliance for Democracy. The essays are written in a provocative, confrontational style creating Thailand Unhinged a decidedly unconventional mix of academic scholarship, literary journalism, and radical pamphleteering. Opening with a glimpse of the 2006 coup, “Thailand Unhinged” chronicles of Thailand’s decades-extended oscillation between fledgling democracy and military dictatorship, assessing the conventional wisdom on the instability of Thailand’s democratic institutions. In the procedure, it debunks the notion that the rift among city and countryside has anything to do with competing visions of democracy. It exposes the speciousness of the case concocted to justify Thaksin’s ouster by examining the threat that the former Prime Minister posed to a network of unelected “large men” in the civilian and military bureaucracy. It describes Abhisit Vejjajiva’s glide into the Prime Minister’s office as exemplary of the myriad ways in which Thailand’s most prominent unelected institutions have generally sought to undermine the country’s democratic development. It illustrates Thailand’s class structure via a graphic account of the reality of prostitution, the incentive structure major young provincial women by the tens of thousands to enter the sex trade, and the opportunities for huge economic obtain that the promotion of sex tourism provides politicians, generals, businessmen, and noblemen. Taking the debate raging on over the country’s lese majeste legislation as a case in point, it deconstructs the thought of “Thai-style democracy,” denouncing it as little more than an exotic-sounding label for a run-of-the-mill, European-style dictatorship. And it reflects on what the events of the past 3 years portend for Thailand’s prospects of democratization, now that the old order could have finally begun to unravel – generating it a must-read book for any individual following modern Thai politics. “Thailand Unhinged” can be ordered directly from the publisher at http://www.EquinoxPublishing.com, on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/dp/9793780762/ as nicely as bookstores throughout Thailand (as soon as we can locate some that are willing to carry it). It is also offered for a limited preview on Google Book Search http://books.google.com/books?id=QivfB-XLgsUC&ampprintsec=frontcover and Kindle and Apple’s iBook formats will be prepared by the end of March 2010. About the Author FEDERICO FERRARA is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore and will join the Division of Asian and International Research at the City University of Hong Kong later this year. Federico holds a PhD in Political Science from Harvard University (2008). His research focuses o Equinox Publishing to release Thailand Unhinged by Federico Ferrara

New York, NY (PRWEB) February 16, 2010

Jakarta-based Equinox Publishing is pleased to announce the international availability of Federico Ferrara’s most current book, “Thailand Unhinged: Unraveling the Myth of a Thai-style Democracy” on 18 February 2010. “We are primarily recognized for publishing books about Indonesia, but I instantly loved the manuscript and wanted it for our catalog. Then, when I found not a single Thailand-based publisher would touch it, I knew it was anything we just had to publish,” mentioned Mark Hanusz, Founder and Publisher at Equinox. “Our initial book (“Bangkok Inside Out”) was banned for some silly purpose like not sufficient Thai individuals were smiling in it, so there’s a very good possibility we’ll be 2 for two with Thailand Unhinged.” Author Federico Ferrara explains, “Even though the timing of the book’s release is fortuitous, I do not believe I could have selected a far more opportune time had I been offered the chance. As the specter of a military coup returns to haunt the city of Bangkok, this book seeks to capture the intoxicating mixture of worry, hope, and frenzied anticipation that marks these fascinating occasions.”

“Thailand Unhinged” gives a trenchant analysis of Thai politics and society more than the tumultuous years that followed the ouster of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thailand’s ongoing political crisis is explained by means of the prism of the country’s painful post-absolutist history a history marred by the systematic sabotage of any meaningful democratic development, the routine hijacking of democratic institutions, and the continued suffocation of the Thai people’s democratic aspirations orchestrated by an unelected ruling class in an increasingly desperate try to hold on to its power. The book involves scathing critiques of both Thaksin’s administration as nicely as the military-backed government that came to power in late 2008, following the week-long siege of the country’s busiest airports staged by the “yellow shirts” of the People’s Alliance for Democracy. The essays are written in a provocative, confrontational style creating Thailand Unhinged a decidedly unconventional mix of academic scholarship, literary journalism, and radical pamphleteering.

Opening with a glimpse of the 2006 coup, “Thailand Unhinged” chronicles of Thailand’s decades-extended oscillation between fledgling democracy and military dictatorship, assessing the conventional wisdom on the instability of Thailand’s democratic institutions. In the procedure, it debunks the notion that the rift among city and countryside has anything to do with competing visions of democracy. It exposes the speciousness of the case concocted to justify Thaksin’s ouster by examining the threat that the former Prime Minister posed to a network of unelected “large men” in the civilian and military bureaucracy. It describes Abhisit Vejjajiva’s glide into the Prime Minister’s office as exemplary of the myriad ways in which Thailand’s most prominent unelected institutions have generally sought to undermine the country’s democratic development. It illustrates Thailand’s class structure via a graphic account of the reality of prostitution, the incentive structure major young provincial women by the tens of thousands to enter the sex trade, and the opportunities for huge economic obtain that the promotion of sex tourism provides politicians, generals, businessmen, and noblemen. Taking the debate raging on over the country’s lese majeste legislation as a case in point, it deconstructs the thought of “Thai-style democracy,” denouncing it as little more than an exotic-sounding label for a run-of-the-mill, European-style dictatorship. And it reflects on what the events of the past 3 years portend for Thailand’s prospects of democratization, now that the old order could have finally begun to unravel – generating it a must-read book for any individual following modern Thai politics.

“Thailand Unhinged” can be ordered directly from the publisher at http://www.EquinoxPublishing.com, on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/dp/9793780762/ as nicely as bookstores throughout Thailand (as soon as we can locate some that are willing to carry it).

It is also offered for a limited preview on Google Book Search http://books.google.com/books?id=QivfB-XLgsUC&ampprintsec=frontcover and Kindle and Apple’s iBook formats will be prepared by the end of March 2010.

About the Author

FEDERICO FERRARA is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore and will join the Division of Asian and International Research at the City University of Hong Kong later this year. Federico holds a PhD in Political Science from Harvard University (2008). His research focuses o

Equinox Publishing to release Thailand Unhinged by Federico Ferrara