Conflict, Legitimacy and Government Reform: Equitable Allocation of ...

50 KPI Congress XI
inheritance tax that aims at mitigating inequality and preventing
speculative asset hoarding.
Why were such drastic changes feasible in Japan? One reason was
the earlier ruling class of Japan lost in World War II, stripping them of
their status and credibility and leaving a room for American consultants
led by General McArthur to successfully implement policies to mitigate
inequality. As a result, labor unions could negotiate with employers.
In my opinion, one interesting point from Japan is generally many
Japanese wanted a more equitable society and agreed with American
consultants. Moreover, they could pass on the belief in the value of
equality until now.
So-called ‘political will’ or the willingness of a government to
implement policies to mitigate inequality is very crucial. Policies might
change as time goes by. As observed over the past 10 years, income
distribution in developed countries such as the United States, England,
France and Italy has turned sour because governments wanted to
implement more liberal economic policies, resulting in reduction of
social security and welfare budgets, but income distribution in countries
that still adopt welfare state policies such as Norway, Sweden and
Denmark is still in good shape.
In our country, inequality have risen during the early stages of
economic development, which corresponds to Kuznets’ explanation, that
is, saving concentration lies the hands of a marginal number of people;
profit increases at a faster rate compared to wages; income of urbanites
rises faster than rural people and so forth. Inequality in Thailand have
not subsided but still remained because opportunities which the masses
can earn more are limited, especially those in rural areas. Furthermore,
modern governments of Thailand have never initiated any mitigation
policies to suppress inequality through fiscal policy and other policies like
other countries cited above. In other words, Thailand never had a
political will and labor unions and other social movements (e.g. farmers)
have never been strong enough to pressure governments or become a