Thailand is a constitutional monarchy, which is a form of a government in which the King is responsible for serving to the people of the country and is referred to as the Head of the State. The governance in Thailand is formed and operated on the basis of the constitution and according to it; the political system of Thailand is divided into three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. Let’s look at the political hierarchy of this country in detail.
A) The Executive Branch of Government
This branch of the government is headed by the Prime Minister and consists of several other ministers and ministries. The Prime Minister is elected by the House of Representatives which is a part of the Legislative branch of the government. Within the executive branch, there is a hierarchical system of governance and it consists of the following divisions.
1. Cabinet: Consists of the Prime minister and other ministers who are responsible for handling day to day operations of the government of Thailand.
2. Ministry of the Interior
3. Ministry of Finance
4. Ministry of Justice
5. Ministry of foreign affairs
6. Ministry of commerce
7. Ministry of defense
8. Ministry of education
9. Ministry of public health
10. Ministry of university affairs
11. Ministry of agriculture
12. Ministry of transportation and communications
13. Ministry of science, technology and environment
14. Ministry of labor and social welfare
B) The Legislative Branch of Government
This is the law making section of the government which is also known as The National Assembly. This branch of the Thai Government consists of two arms with a separate set of responsibilities and they are given as follows:
1. House of Representatives-This is the lower house of the legislative branch and consists of 500 members of the Parliament.
2. The Senate-This is the upper house of the legislative branch of the government and has 200 members in total. This section of this branch is responsible for enactment of all the organic laws.
C) The Judicial Branch of Government
The third branch or arm of the government is the judicial branch which is responsible for making sure that all laws made by the legislative branch are properly enforced. This branch basically consists of all the courts of Thailand. The hierarchy of these courts is given as follows
1. The constitutional Court-This is the most important court in Thailand and holds the power to review the application of any law that was involved in any previous case. The powers that this court holds are wide and very broad.
2. The Supreme Court-The Supreme Court and constitutional court are different bodies in Thailand.
3. The Appeal Courts– This is the second most powerful type of court category in Thailand and consists of those courts which are authorized to consider the appeal from trial courts.
4. The Trial Courts-These are the base levels courts in Thailand which consist of many courts, list of which is given as follows:
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- District courts
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- Provincial courts
- Central courts-central criminal courts and central civil courts
- Labor courts
- Military courts
- Juvenile courts
- Family courts
- International trade and intellectual property courts