Democracy Monument: Ideology, Identity, and Power Manifested in Built Forms

Abstract

This research article examines the methods of power mediation in the design of the DemocracyMonument in Bangkok, Thailand. It examines its underlying concept and mechanisms for conveying politicalpower and social practice, along with the national and cultural identity that operates under an ideologicalframework. The study consists of two major parts. First, it investigates the monument as a political form ofarchitecture: a symbolic device for the state to manifest, legitimize, and maintain power. The focus thenshifts to an architectural form of politics: the ways in which ordinary citizens re-appropriated the DemocracyMonument through semantic subversions to perform their social and political activities as well as to formtheir modern identities. Via the discourse theory, the analytical and critical discussions further revealcomplexity, incongruity, and contradiction of meanings in the design of the monument in addition toparadoxical relationships with its setting, Rajadamnoen Avenue, which resulted from changes in the country’ssocio-political situations.