Abstract:
Any society with liberal democratic government, to be peaceful would require certain principle that every party holds to for their economic, social and political behaviors or activities within that society. It will establish a tight without crack under an important principle i.e. Property Rights. Men have 4 basic needs to survive. They will be satisfied by their production. Mode of Production in any society will depend on their economic and social policies or the relationship between men and nature, production relation, or the relation among men in the production. Such structural relationship is then the power related interaction between classes founding on competition for benefit and rights to possess production factors. Changes occurred from either partys force, will influence the possession the property rights. Therefore, the objectives of this study are 1. literature review on theories of property rights, 2. study the development, roles and importance of property rights and derived conflicts within Thai society, 3. case studies of property rights related conflicts within Thai society. Prior to the year 2475, Thailand was under the absolute monarchy. The King owned every life and land. His subjects only had the right to live in and make a living on, which could not be considered as having land ownership. Until the year 2398, Thai government had entered into the Browling Treaty with England, which had pushed up the production for trade. Property rights of land was more obvious. Private ownership of land took place. However, those rights were concentrated in the hands of the Royal family, lords, and foreign traders. The property rights system could be described in 3 features ; 1. those of the Kings, 2. those of the privates, 3. those of the communitys. In the year 2475, Thailand had changed into democratic system. And in the year 2497, the government had issued Land Law 2497 recognizing the private property, which were enforced till 13th January, 2502 when it was aborted by the 49th declaration of the Coup. Such abortion was a result of political pressure that supported capitalism. The result was capitalistic group could possess land without limit. Poor farmers who had only very limited land for their subsistence, could not sustain the capital power and had to lose their land finally. Today, there exists only the rights of land of the government and private, ignoring the presence of communal property rights, which has been the cause of several conflicts in Thai society. In conclusion, the output of solidly integrated Thai capitalism between political and private groups, or political capitalists has made the expression of sovereignty of the people representatives not in line with the common will the people, resulting in distraction of a social institution that control and regulate the allocation of property rights in Thai society. Secondly, the answer to reduce or solve social conflicts will require political economy analysis on property rights. The change of mode of production can lead to the change of its super structure and vice versa.