“Poverty” in State Discourse: An Analysis of the Legitimation of Thailand's State Welfare Card Policy

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the legitimation process of the State Welfare Card policy through the state-produced discourse of poverty. Employing a post-structuralist discourse analysis, the study finds that the state constructs a discourse that defines poverty as a problem of individual responsibility. This, in turn, legitimizes the screening process for qualified recipients and allows the policy to gain acceptance without addressing structural inequality. A key recommendation is that this discourse should be re-examined, shifting the perspective on welfare policy from conditional assistance to an affirmation of basic citizenship rights in order to foster long-term justice.