Institutional and policy legacies reared their
heads again during and after the crisis, when
the focus of economic policy shifted from
macroeconomic stability to microissues of technological
development. Although the government
could meet shifting coalitional priorities
without compromising the underlying economic
stability necessary for investment accumulation,
it is less clear that it was capable of
meeting coalitional needs while simultaneously
creating knowledge and technological capacity.
Prior policy and institutional patterns of exclusion
acted to constrain efforts to resolve new
and more complex collective dilemmas surrounding
information exchange, investment
appropriation, monitoring, and enforcement.
The result has been an economy slow to transition
from manufacturing process technology to
the more technologically advanced activities of
design and development. The exception that
proves this rule is Penang. Here, dissimilar
public–private relationships unencumbered by
communal priorities encouraged the inclusion
of small business and labor in the development
enterprise, which made it possible to
move beyond simple assembly and process
technology.