Economic Development under the Authoritarian Military Rule in Thailand and Myanmar: A Survey of Literature

Abstract

The literature has been checked in this paper to understand how the contemporary research has answered the questions: How have the military regimes impacted economic development in Thailand and Myanmar, and why has Thailand achieved better economic development than Myanmar under military rule? By surveying major works, this systematicliterature review argues that there seems to be limited research focusing on the comparative study of economic development in these two neighbouring countries during the authoritarian military rule. Therefore, an endeavour of a comparative study of these two most similar cases should be initiated to fill this research gap. It will facilitate a new understanding of the impact of military rule as a Cold War and post-Cold War phenomenon on better economic development in Thailand than in Myanmar, along with the causes of this variation.