POPULATION DENSITY, ELITES, AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF INFRASTRUCTURAL RESOURCES IN THAILAND

Literature on population density and infrastructure has generally used an ecological/economic model to identify the determinants of the distribution of infrastructural resources. While this approach has been fruitful, a political-economic approach suggests the importance of an alternative set of determinants of resource distribution: the needs of elites. This paper operationalizes both political-economic and ecological/economic explanations and compares their efficacy in predicting infrastructural development in the provinces of Thailand. Overall, our data suggest that the distribution of infrastructural resources is primarily a function of two ecological-economic variables—gross provincial product and density, and the political-economic factors of presence of governmental and non-governmental elites in the province.