ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a basic, general overview of the main features of Myanmar's political economy. Myanmar's economy today contrasts starkly with those of its more developed Southeast Asian neighbours like Thailand and Malaysia. The chapter explores the two major dynamics shaping this outcome: the failure of Cold War-era 'socialist' development, which retarded the development of class forces and locked Myanmar into a resource-exporting, capital-importing model; and the post-Cold War, politically-constrained moves towards marketisation, which concentrated economic power in a small elite. The chapter considers the implications for Myanmar's contemporary political economy and the 'reform' process. The military shaped economic liberalisation to augment the economic base of itself and the wider state apparatus that it dominated. The main features of Myanmar's post-colonial development have been the failure of state-led industrialisation before 1988, followed by politically-constrained economic liberalisation.
