The year 1992 was the beginning of a fourteen-year period that seemed to transition Thailand towards democracy and civilian control over the military. During the first part of this period (1992–2001), three principals (the palace, the king's Privy Council and key retired generals) dominated the country, given that Thailand possessed a defective democracy (defective because most power was centred upon the aforementioned principals). The only “civilian” who really could control the country was King Bhumipol, lording over the people and the armed forces. Thailand after 1992 thus became what Thongchai Winichakul calls a “royalist democracy”:

A “guided democracy or ‘managed democracy’ is a formally democratic government that functions as a de facto authoritarian government.… Such governments are legitimized by elections that are free and fair, but do not change the state's policies, motives, and goals.” Merkel (2004) refers to this “guided” or “managed”, defective variant of democracy as “tutelary democracy” because unelected entities exert veto power over democratically elected civilian governments. Thailand has experienced such democracies.

But at the post–Black May inception of this “royalist democracy”, the 13 September 1992 election resulted in the centrist Democrats taking 79 seats, while the conservative Chart Thai received 77, indicating that a political divide was alive and well in Thailand's lower house. A Democrat-led ruling coalition formed on 29 September with General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's New Aspiration Party and General Chamlong Srimuang's Palang Dharma.