Available:*
Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000003645284 | JQ1062.A91 M86 1996 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
"The Malaysian state boasts of economic buoyancy and political stability as one of the later, albeit smaller dragons to emerge in Southeast Asia, yet one which at first glance is not the authoritarian regime of Pinochet, for example. Understanding the nature of the state is the focus of this book: first, from a theoretical point of view to suggest that authoritarian populism is the most appropriate analytical concept with which to address this question, but also from a human rights perspective of class-based communal policies and the prolonged use of detention without trial. The serious consequences for the health democracy and the participatory rights of the people are spelled out at many different levels." "Failing Western economies often talk of imitating the Eastern approach to development. However, it is clear from this account that the outcome for the health of democracy and the rights of the people is not necessarily positive."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Reviews 1
Choice Review
The author raises two fundamental questions: (1) How has the government been able to maintain popular electoral support while maintaining and strengthening authoritarian institutions? and (2) Given that authoritarian states do succeed in achieving sustained economic growth, how has Malaysia done it? To answer these and other questions, the author relies primarily on secondary sources and newspaper accounts, but there is little original research and no interviews with either government or opposition leaders. She explains the political economy of Malaysia by advancing a theory of authoritarian populism that is descriptive rather than analytical and seems designed as a framework for this study rather than as a means of employing political theory critically or comparatively. The author also moves beyond the pluralist analyses that scholars additionally use to describe Malaysian politics and economics in favor of a class analysis, but in this as in the general theoretical construct, she is clear neither as to meanings and use nor their application. This is more a polemic than a scholarly study and should be read with more complete studies such as Gordon P. Means's Malaysian Politics: The Second Generation (CH, Apr'92), to fill in the details Munro-Kua omits. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. J. Silverstein; emeritus, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick
