Rule of law as institutional substrate — contract enforcement, judicial independence, equal treatment before the law. Upstream of most other axes.
Independence of the judiciary from executive and legislative encroachment. Specifically captures court-packing, selective prosecution, judicial reshuffles.
Bloodless military coup on 19 September 2006 while PM Thaksin was at UN General Assembly in New York. Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy (CDRM, later Council for National Security, CNS) led by Army Commander General Sonthi Boonyaratglin suspended 1997 Constitution, dissolved cabinet and Constitutional Court, suspended NCCC and Senate. Abrogated the 1997 People's Constitution. Interim constitution promulgated 1 October 2006; Surayud Chulanont appointed interim PM. 2007 Constitution approved by referendum (57.8% yes) 19 August 2007. December 2007 election saw Thaksin-linked PPP win despite proscription of TRT. Proximate triggers: Shin Corp sale, PAD mobilisation, April 2006 annulled election crisis.
Per invariant 3, reforms are scored by what they did on each channel-separated axis, not by the party that enacted them. This fingerprint is how the policy-match engine finds historical analogues.
Explicit links are curated by the author. Inferred links are hypotheses in the library that test the same axes this policy moved — the framework's answer to "what does the data say about a policy like this?".
Ranked by axis-fingerprint overlap with this policy. Direction match bolded — those are the closest historical analogues. Shape of the match is what drives policy-outcome comparison, not the country or party label.