Tomas Larsson
Biographic Data
| ID | 222549 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tomas Larsson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tomas |
| FAMILY NAME | Larsson |
| SIGNATURE | LARSSON T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cambridge |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0877-7909 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 63 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Buddhists, ballots, and backing for authoritarian successor parties in Thailand
Revisiting civil religion: Lessons from Thailand
Since the 1960s, the concept of civil religion has informed a great number of scholarly works exploring the relationship between religion and nationalism in the west — and beyond. It is therefore not surprising that the concept also informed seminal works on Buddhism and politics in Thailand. In recent years, however, the concept appears to have fallen out of fashion within Thai Studies and perhaps Southeast Asian Studies more broadly. This artic…
Who votes for virtue? Religion and party choice in Thailand’s 2019 election
Does religion shape political competition in Thailand? Despite the prominence of religiously inflected rhetoric of good and evil in contemporary political contestation, existing research suggests that it does not. This article challenges this conventional wisdom. Survey data collected in connection with Thailand’s 2019 general election, which marked a transition from direct military rule to a hybrid regime, allow us to examine the political relev…
Religion, political parties, and Thailand's 2019 election: Cosmopolitan royalism and its rivals
The political salience of religious issues and identities has been rising in Thailand, and this is increasingly reflected in electoral politics. Thai political parties seek to position themselves in relation to struggles over the location of the ideological centre of gravity, which has pitted defenders of the religio-political status quo-a monarchy-centred civil-religious nationalism-against Buddhist nationalists, on the one hand, and proponents …
Royal Succession and the Politics of Religious Purification in Contemporary Thailand
In response to a dual crisis of legitimacy, ruling political elites in Thailand have, since the 2014 military coup, been engaged in a variety of initiatives aimed at reforming the relationship between the state and the Buddhist monkhood. These efforts were intensified after the death of King Bhumibol in October 2016 and the ascension to the throne by King Vajiralongkorn. Through amendments to the Sangha Act that invoke "ancient royal traditions,"…
The Ambiguous Allure of Ashoka: Buddhist Kingship as Precedent, Potentiality, and Pitfall for Covenantal Pluralism in Thailand
In the course of the 20th century, Thai political elites fashioned a religiopolitical settlement that has a great deal in common with covenantal pluralism. They did so, furthermore, by rediscovering a historic precedent in the Indian emperor Ashoka, and reinterpreting the image of this paragon of Buddhist kingship so as to emphasize theological humility and a benevolent embrace of religious pluralism. Since the fall of the absolute monarchy in 19…
Fighting for Virtue: Justice and Politics in Thailand
Attained SCOPUS CiteScore of 1.4 in 2019.Attained Journal Citation Report (JCR) Journal Impact Factor of 0.717 in 2019.SCImago Journal and Country Rank (SJR) 2019 for the Asiatic Region: Ranked 1st in Political Science and International Relations; 1st in History; and 3rd in Arts and Humanities.Ranked 19th by Google Scholar Metrics 2020 in the category of “Asian Studies and History”
The political economy of state patronage of religion: Evidence from Thailand
Deciding the character and level of official patronage of religion are fundamental questions for all states. Yet we know next to nothing about the determinants of such patronage. Are democratic governments more or less inclined than autocratic ones to seek legitimacy through religious patronage? Is it ultimately ideological struggles that determine the extent of government backing of religion? This article addresses these questions through an ana…
Buddhist Bureaucracy and Religious Freedom in Thailand
In accordance with Thai conceptions of Buddhist kingship, Thai rulers have felt obliged to devote considerable energies towards the promotion and protection of Buddhism. Over the past century (and more), state laws have been instituted and bureaucratic agencies established to regulate and implement such promotional and protective activities. This article outlines some broad trends and patterns in the bureaucratization of Buddhism in Thailand, and…
Tamara Loos. Bones around My Neck: The Life and Exile of a Prince Provocateur
Tamara Loos’s new book uses the life (and afterlife) of an exceptional individual as a narrative vehicle that captivatingly brings to life the history of Siam’s transformation into modern Thailand. The individual in question is Prince Prisdang Chumsai (1852–1935), a minor member of the royal family, whose intelligence, energy, and ambition enabled him to chalk up an improbably large number of Siamese “firsts.” In 1876, Prisdang became the first S…
On Liberalism and the Postcolony: Thinking the State in 20th-Century Philippines
SOJOURN is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to the study of social and cultural issues in Southeast Asia. It publishes empirical and theoretical research articles with a view to promoting and disseminating scholarship in and on the region. Areas of special concern include ethnicity, religion, tourism, urbanization, migration, popular culture, social and cultural change, and development. Fields most often represented in the journal are anthrop…
In Search of Liberalism: Ideological Traditions, Translations and Troubles in Thailand
Who catches the biotech train? Understanding diverging political responses to GMOs in Southeast Asia
International audience
Keeping Monks in Their Place
This essay explores the extent to which Thailand's secular legal system reinforces the imagined divide, common in Thai Buddhist conceptions of society, between a "worldly" sphere and the "religious" sphere of thesangha(order of monks). It asks: How far does secular Thai law exclude clergy from the "unmonkly" domains of politics and commerce? It shows that there is a striking discrepancy between the systematic way in which secular Thai law has kep…
Monkish Politics in Southeast Asia: Religious disenfranchisement in comparative and theoretical perspective
In the Theravāda Buddhist polities on the mainland of Southeast Asia, abiding concerns about the proper structuring of the relationship between the 'two wheels ofdhamma' (i.e. the realm of religion and the realm of politics) have had a profound influence on processes of state formation and political legitimation. This article explores one such religious 'effect' on the constitutions and electoral laws of modern Burma/Myanmar, Siam/Thailand, Cambo…
The Strong and the Weak: Ups and Downs of State Capacity in Southeast Asia
Why are some Southeast Asian states strong and others weak? This article addresses this question by mapping state capacity across the region on two dimensions—fiscal and legal‐administrative—and then exploring alternative explanations. It argues that variation in state capacities relates to differences in regime type and industrial structure. The region's democracies have greater fiscal state capacity than authoritarian regimes, and economies dep…
Political Booms: Local Money and Power in Taiwan, East China, Thailand, and the Philippines . Lynn T. White
Taking Southeast Asia to Market: Commodities, Nature, and People in the Neoliberal Age
Western Imperialism and Defensive Underdevelopment of Property Rights Institutions in Siam
Thailand and Japan both faced the threat of colonialism in the latter half of the nineteenth century. While geopolitical vulnerabilities provided Japan with a critical impetus for defensive modernization, they compelled the Siamese state to pursue a strategy of defensive underdevelopment. To understand this paradox, the article explores how variations in the “unequal treaties” imposed on Japan and Siam by Western powers shaped state interests in …
Intertextual relations: The geopolitics of land rights in Thailand
Reform, corruption, and growth: Why corruption is more devastating in Russia than in China
This article explains why massive political corruption appears to be incompatible with economic growth in Russia but compatible with very rapid economic growth in China. The common assumption is that corruption is bad for economic performance. So how can we explain the puzzling contrast between Russia and China? Is Russia being more severely “punished” for its corruption than China? If so, why? This article demonstrates that three intervening fac…
Monkish Politics in Southeast Asia: Religious disenfranchisement in comparative and theoretical perspective
In the Theravāda Buddhist polities on the mainland of Southeast Asia, abiding concerns about the proper structuring of the relationship between the 'two wheels ofdhamma' (i.e. the realm of religion and the realm of politics) have had a profound influence on processes of state formation and political legitimation. This article explores one such religious 'effect' on the constitutions and electoral laws of modern Burma/Myanmar, Siam/Thailand, Cambo…
On Liberalism and the Postcolony: Thinking the State in 20th-Century Philippines
SOJOURN is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to the study of social and cultural issues in Southeast Asia. It publishes empirical and theoretical research articles with a view to promoting and disseminating scholarship in and on the region. Areas of special concern include ethnicity, religion, tourism, urbanization, migration, popular culture, social and cultural change, and development. Fields most often represented in the journal are anthrop…
In Search of Liberalism: Ideological Traditions, Translations and Troubles in Thailand
Royal Succession and the Politics of Religious Purification in Contemporary Thailand
In response to a dual crisis of legitimacy, ruling political elites in Thailand have, since the 2014 military coup, been engaged in a variety of initiatives aimed at reforming the relationship between the state and the Buddhist monkhood. These efforts were intensified after the death of King Bhumibol in October 2016 and the ascension to the throne by King Vajiralongkorn. Through amendments to the Sangha Act that invoke "ancient royal traditions,"…
Keeping Monks in Their Place
This essay explores the extent to which Thailand's secular legal system reinforces the imagined divide, common in Thai Buddhist conceptions of society, between a "worldly" sphere and the "religious" sphere of thesangha(order of monks). It asks: How far does secular Thai law exclude clergy from the "unmonkly" domains of politics and commerce? It shows that there is a striking discrepancy between the systematic way in which secular Thai law has kep…
The Ambiguous Allure of Ashoka: Buddhist Kingship as Precedent, Potentiality, and Pitfall for Covenantal Pluralism in Thailand
In the course of the 20th century, Thai political elites fashioned a religiopolitical settlement that has a great deal in common with covenantal pluralism. They did so, furthermore, by rediscovering a historic precedent in the Indian emperor Ashoka, and reinterpreting the image of this paragon of Buddhist kingship so as to emphasize theological humility and a benevolent embrace of religious pluralism. Since the fall of the absolute monarchy in 19…
The political economy of state patronage of religion: Evidence from Thailand
Deciding the character and level of official patronage of religion are fundamental questions for all states. Yet we know next to nothing about the determinants of such patronage. Are democratic governments more or less inclined than autocratic ones to seek legitimacy through religious patronage? Is it ultimately ideological struggles that determine the extent of government backing of religion? This article addresses these questions through an ana…
Reform, corruption, and growth: Why corruption is more devastating in Russia than in China
This article explains why massive political corruption appears to be incompatible with economic growth in Russia but compatible with very rapid economic growth in China. The common assumption is that corruption is bad for economic performance. So how can we explain the puzzling contrast between Russia and China? Is Russia being more severely “punished” for its corruption than China? If so, why? This article demonstrates that three intervening fac…
Western Imperialism and Defensive Underdevelopment of Property Rights Institutions in Siam
Thailand and Japan both faced the threat of colonialism in the latter half of the nineteenth century. While geopolitical vulnerabilities provided Japan with a critical impetus for defensive modernization, they compelled the Siamese state to pursue a strategy of defensive underdevelopment. To understand this paradox, the article explores how variations in the “unequal treaties” imposed on Japan and Siam by Western powers shaped state interests in …
Who votes for virtue? Religion and party choice in Thailand’s 2019 election
Does religion shape political competition in Thailand? Despite the prominence of religiously inflected rhetoric of good and evil in contemporary political contestation, existing research suggests that it does not. This article challenges this conventional wisdom. Survey data collected in connection with Thailand’s 2019 general election, which marked a transition from direct military rule to a hybrid regime, allow us to examine the political relev…
The Strong and the Weak: Ups and Downs of State Capacity in Southeast Asia
Why are some Southeast Asian states strong and others weak? This article addresses this question by mapping state capacity across the region on two dimensions—fiscal and legal‐administrative—and then exploring alternative explanations. It argues that variation in state capacities relates to differences in regime type and industrial structure. The region's democracies have greater fiscal state capacity than authoritarian regimes, and economies dep…
Intertextual relations: The geopolitics of land rights in Thailand
Religion, political parties, and Thailand's 2019 election: Cosmopolitan royalism and its rivals
The political salience of religious issues and identities has been rising in Thailand, and this is increasingly reflected in electoral politics. Thai political parties seek to position themselves in relation to struggles over the location of the ideological centre of gravity, which has pitted defenders of the religio-political status quo-a monarchy-centred civil-religious nationalism-against Buddhist nationalists, on the one hand, and proponents …
Who catches the biotech train? Understanding diverging political responses to GMOs in Southeast Asia
International audience
Reform, corruption, and growth: Why corruption is more devastating in Russia than in China
This article explains why massive political corruption appears to be incompatible with economic growth in Russia but compatible with very rapid economic growth in China. The common assumption is that corruption is bad for economic performance. So how can we explain the puzzling contrast between Russia and China? Is Russia being more severely “punished” for its corruption than China? If so, why? This article demonstrates that three intervening fac…
Intertextual relations: The geopolitics of land rights in Thailand
Western Imperialism and Defensive Underdevelopment of Property Rights Institutions in Siam
Thailand and Japan both faced the threat of colonialism in the latter half of the nineteenth century. While geopolitical vulnerabilities provided Japan with a critical impetus for defensive modernization, they compelled the Siamese state to pursue a strategy of defensive underdevelopment. To understand this paradox, the article explores how variations in the “unequal treaties” imposed on Japan and Siam by Western powers shaped state interests in …
Taking Southeast Asia to Market: Commodities, Nature, and People in the Neoliberal Age
Political Booms: Local Money and Power in Taiwan, East China, Thailand, and the Philippines . Lynn T. White
The Strong and the Weak: Ups and Downs of State Capacity in Southeast Asia
Why are some Southeast Asian states strong and others weak? This article addresses this question by mapping state capacity across the region on two dimensions—fiscal and legal‐administrative—and then exploring alternative explanations. It argues that variation in state capacities relates to differences in regime type and industrial structure. The region's democracies have greater fiscal state capacity than authoritarian regimes, and economies dep…
Monkish Politics in Southeast Asia: Religious disenfranchisement in comparative and theoretical perspective
In the Theravāda Buddhist polities on the mainland of Southeast Asia, abiding concerns about the proper structuring of the relationship between the 'two wheels ofdhamma' (i.e. the realm of religion and the realm of politics) have had a profound influence on processes of state formation and political legitimation. This article explores one such religious 'effect' on the constitutions and electoral laws of modern Burma/Myanmar, Siam/Thailand, Cambo…
Who catches the biotech train? Understanding diverging political responses to GMOs in Southeast Asia
International audience
Keeping Monks in Their Place
This essay explores the extent to which Thailand's secular legal system reinforces the imagined divide, common in Thai Buddhist conceptions of society, between a "worldly" sphere and the "religious" sphere of thesangha(order of monks). It asks: How far does secular Thai law exclude clergy from the "unmonkly" domains of politics and commerce? It shows that there is a striking discrepancy between the systematic way in which secular Thai law has kep…
In Search of Liberalism: Ideological Traditions, Translations and Troubles in Thailand
Buddhist Bureaucracy and Religious Freedom in Thailand
In accordance with Thai conceptions of Buddhist kingship, Thai rulers have felt obliged to devote considerable energies towards the promotion and protection of Buddhism. Over the past century (and more), state laws have been instituted and bureaucratic agencies established to regulate and implement such promotional and protective activities. This article outlines some broad trends and patterns in the bureaucratization of Buddhism in Thailand, and…
Tamara Loos. Bones around My Neck: The Life and Exile of a Prince Provocateur
Tamara Loos’s new book uses the life (and afterlife) of an exceptional individual as a narrative vehicle that captivatingly brings to life the history of Siam’s transformation into modern Thailand. The individual in question is Prince Prisdang Chumsai (1852–1935), a minor member of the royal family, whose intelligence, energy, and ambition enabled him to chalk up an improbably large number of Siamese “firsts.” In 1876, Prisdang became the first S…
On Liberalism and the Postcolony: Thinking the State in 20th-Century Philippines
SOJOURN is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to the study of social and cultural issues in Southeast Asia. It publishes empirical and theoretical research articles with a view to promoting and disseminating scholarship in and on the region. Areas of special concern include ethnicity, religion, tourism, urbanization, migration, popular culture, social and cultural change, and development. Fields most often represented in the journal are anthrop…
The political economy of state patronage of religion: Evidence from Thailand
Deciding the character and level of official patronage of religion are fundamental questions for all states. Yet we know next to nothing about the determinants of such patronage. Are democratic governments more or less inclined than autocratic ones to seek legitimacy through religious patronage? Is it ultimately ideological struggles that determine the extent of government backing of religion? This article addresses these questions through an ana…
Fighting for Virtue: Justice and Politics in Thailand
Attained SCOPUS CiteScore of 1.4 in 2019.Attained Journal Citation Report (JCR) Journal Impact Factor of 0.717 in 2019.SCImago Journal and Country Rank (SJR) 2019 for the Asiatic Region: Ranked 1st in Political Science and International Relations; 1st in History; and 3rd in Arts and Humanities.Ranked 19th by Google Scholar Metrics 2020 in the category of “Asian Studies and History”
The Ambiguous Allure of Ashoka: Buddhist Kingship as Precedent, Potentiality, and Pitfall for Covenantal Pluralism in Thailand
In the course of the 20th century, Thai political elites fashioned a religiopolitical settlement that has a great deal in common with covenantal pluralism. They did so, furthermore, by rediscovering a historic precedent in the Indian emperor Ashoka, and reinterpreting the image of this paragon of Buddhist kingship so as to emphasize theological humility and a benevolent embrace of religious pluralism. Since the fall of the absolute monarchy in 19…
Royal Succession and the Politics of Religious Purification in Contemporary Thailand
In response to a dual crisis of legitimacy, ruling political elites in Thailand have, since the 2014 military coup, been engaged in a variety of initiatives aimed at reforming the relationship between the state and the Buddhist monkhood. These efforts were intensified after the death of King Bhumibol in October 2016 and the ascension to the throne by King Vajiralongkorn. Through amendments to the Sangha Act that invoke "ancient royal traditions,"…
Who votes for virtue? Religion and party choice in Thailand’s 2019 election
Does religion shape political competition in Thailand? Despite the prominence of religiously inflected rhetoric of good and evil in contemporary political contestation, existing research suggests that it does not. This article challenges this conventional wisdom. Survey data collected in connection with Thailand’s 2019 general election, which marked a transition from direct military rule to a hybrid regime, allow us to examine the political relev…
Religion, political parties, and Thailand's 2019 election: Cosmopolitan royalism and its rivals
The political salience of religious issues and identities has been rising in Thailand, and this is increasingly reflected in electoral politics. Thai political parties seek to position themselves in relation to struggles over the location of the ideological centre of gravity, which has pitted defenders of the religio-political status quo-a monarchy-centred civil-religious nationalism-against Buddhist nationalists, on the one hand, and proponents …
Revisiting civil religion: Lessons from Thailand
Since the 1960s, the concept of civil religion has informed a great number of scholarly works exploring the relationship between religion and nationalism in the west — and beyond. It is therefore not surprising that the concept also informed seminal works on Buddhism and politics in Thailand. In recent years, however, the concept appears to have fallen out of fashion within Thai Studies and perhaps Southeast Asian Studies more broadly. This artic…
Buddhists, ballots, and backing for authoritarian successor parties in Thailand
Political science (21 works) · Law (18 works) · Politics (18 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies (16 works) · Law (12 works) · Political economy (10 works) · Asian Studies and History (7 works) · Economics (7 works) · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies (7 works)