Policy Regimes and the Political Economy of Poverty Reduction in Malaysia

This book is an original, comprehensive and critical evaluation of Malaysia's 40-year strategy of "poverty eradication" that has been successful in reaching its targets and yet controversial for being linked to the ethnically-oriented social engineering laid down by the New Economic Policy. Departing from narrowly focused studies of limited poverty reduction, the contributors to this volume of essays have brought together in-depth analyses of economic transformation, class and ethnic inequalities, social protection policies, the provision of key social services, political mobilization, and state capacity for planning. The result is a detailed examination of the scope and efficacy of changing policy regimes affecting Malaysia's post-colonial course of economic development, record of industrialization, and its relative resilience in adapting social policies to national pressures and global changes.

KHOO BOO TEIK was born, bred and schooled in Penang, Malaysia, before studying at the University of Rochester, MIT and Flinders University. A leading specialist in Malaysian politics, he wrote Paradoxes of Mahathirism (1995) and Beyond Mahathir (2003). He is executive senior research fellow, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan.