Available:*
Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000005003102 | HC445.5 G65 1997 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
On Order
Summary
Summary
This 1997 book is an insightful and accessible analysis of contemporary Malaysian business and politics. Using the concepts of rent and rent-seeking as tools to study the Malaysian political economy, the authors explore how political patronage influences the accumulation and concentration of wealth. The book considers the impact of party politics and economic development on the relationship between politics and business in Malaysia, and provides discussions of government-led change in Malaysia's business community, including the emergence of a Malay business class. In this revised edition, the authors examine how the 1997 Asian currency, liquidity and financial crises have impacted on Malaysia's economy. Their discussion canvasses various economic policy responses, including capital control measures, as well the ensuing economic recession and political turmoil.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
Political economy, especially as it relates to policy making, is now at the forefront of research in development economics. This volume discusses how rent creation, distribution, and political patronage based on ethnicity and rent-seeking activities have combined to shape the Malaysian economy since independence. The authors' central thesis is that postindependence Malaysian governments created rents from a natural resource-based economy and distributed them to supporters under the indigenization program. The new rich in turn used their acquired wealth to support the government and to engage in more rent-seeking activities. The authors argue that while this creation and transfer of rents may have led to the diversification of the Malaysian economy and hence the foundation of industrialization, the patronage system has led to increased intra-ethnic income inequality and is likely to impede the development of a dynamic entrepreneur-led industrial economy that is capable of competing globally. They further caution that this patronage system will slow economic growth and increase ethnic tensions as natural resources are exhausted and rents become harder to extract. Based on extensive case studies, Gomez's book is well documented and readable. Highly recommended for upper-division undergraduate through research collections. K. Gyimah-Brempong University of South Florida
Table of Contents
| 1 Defining the parameters |
| 2 The colonial legacy |
| 3 The new economic policy |
| 4 Privatising state assets |
| 5 The 'new rich' |
| 6 Liberalisation after 1990? |
| 7 Politics, policies and patronage |
| Afterword: from economic to political crisis |
