Malaysia has been a remarkable economic
success story, worthy in many ways of emulation
by other developing countries. As most
political economists familiar with the region
know, this praise is not due only or even mostly
to its unwavering commitment to liberal and
open trade, investment, and finance. Instead,
luck, pragmatism, initial conditions, and highly
interventionist as well as reform minded government
policy combined to balance ethnically
motivated demands for a redistributive political
economy with sound macromanagement and
rapid economic expansion and growth.