The Buddhist Universal Monarch, Royal Nationalism, and Pluralism in Contemporary Thailand

About this event

Joel Selway (BYU Political Science) presents new survey research on religious nationalism in Thailand. He identifies six distinct blocs among ordinary Thais and links them to voting in the 2023 election. The largest bloc strongly supports the monarchy, Buddhism, and Thai ethnicity while also endorsing respect for Muslim culture. That finding challenges the assumption that religious nationalism is always exclusionary. Selway is an associate professor of political science at BYU who studies ethnically divided societies and democratic institutions. He is the author of Coalitions of the Well-being (Cambridge University Press). Part of the Kennedy Center's fall 2026 lecture series, "Religion, Identity, and Public Life."