ABSTRACT
Malaysia’s industrial development since 1970 has been the subject of numerous studies emphasizing, among other things, the expansion of certain industries, structural barriers on the labour market, accumulation of local (manufacturing) capital, establishment of resource-based industries, state-participation in manufacturing activities and the ethnic configuration of social forces. The studies have produced an extensive and varied knowledge about various aspects of the structural and political transformation process in Malaysia (see overviews as presented by Bowie (1991), Brookfield (1994), Jesudason (1989), Jomo (1986; 1993)). Some of the studies focus on selected elements of the accumulation process but none of them is based on a general theoretical framework aiming at a characterization of different phases within capitalist development.
