The Politics of Structural (De)Transformation

Abstract

The chapter sets out the similarities between Thailand and Malaysia’s patterns of economic growth and political settlements. Both countries have witnessed strong economic growth since the 1960s to the late 1990s, followed by a period of growth deceleration which continues to the present day. In both countries, a dualistic deal environment existed where closed deals were offered to the powerbrokers and rentiers within both economies while open deals were offered for magicians. This allowed both countries to preserve rents for economic elites which maintained political stability while accelerating economic growth. However, this type of dualistic deals approach may act as a barrier to future economic growth as well as structural transformation over time. If negative feedback loops exist within a country, it may lead to a future narrowing of the deals space.

Industrial policy in context: Building blocks for an integrated and comparative political economy agenda

“…The last two papers point to the links between structural dynamics and political economy dynamics in industrial policy -in particular the way in which changes in political settlements can affect industrial policy outcomes (Sen and Tyce, 2018) and the way in which the political economy of industrial policy is shaped by the complex processes of the management of structural interedependencies, policy alignment, and conflict management (Andreoni and Chang, 2018).…”