THE NEXT ISLAMIST GOVERNMENT IS THE SUCCESSFUL ONE:

The trouble really began in 2006, when the military, in connivance with royalists and the courts, overthrew the populist prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The coup ignited years of running street battles between citizen armies of "yellow shirts" -- defenders of the old, semifeudal order -- and "red shirts," Thaksin supporters among the rural and urban poor. Political power changed hands four more times in four years. In January 2010, the police responded to enormous red-shirt protests by killing over 90 demonstrators, injuring 2,400 others and jailing hundreds. The economy went into a tailspin.  

Then, in August 2011, Mr. Thaksin's sister Yingluck Shinawatra became prime minister. And today, barely halfway through her four-year term, Thailand looks like a different country.  

According to Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley, the economic outlook is the brightest in 15 years: the currency is up, land prices have climbed and the stock market has more than quadrupled since 2008. Tourists have returned, and the streets (despite the August flare-ups) are mostly quiet.  

So how did Ms. Yingluck, initially considered a mere proxy for her exiled brother, do it? The formula turns out to be deceptively simple: provide decent, clean governance, compromise with your enemies and focus on the economy.

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