The SE philosophy, a philosophy that was bestowed to his country by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, has been profoundly studied and adopted nation-wide since the economic crisis of 1997. One of the major forces driving the implementation of the philosophy on all levels of the society is the relationship between the King of Thailand and his people. The people of Thailand love the King. The King has dedicated all of his life to the people, and this has resulted in a strong synergy, which has translated into social and economic development…The SE philosophy could be of interest and could become a foundation for models of development not only in Thailand, but in many developing countries of the world.

– Extracted from: Oranuch Pruetipibultham, “The sufficiency economy philosophy and strategic HRD: a sustainable development for Thailand”, Human Resource Development International, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 99 – 110 [p. 108].

Back in the days when the concept still got lots of traction in Thailand, New Mandala devoted a great deal of time and energy to debating the merits of sufficiency economy. If you are keen for a flash-back, links to some of those debates are available here.