The political foundations of development: State and party formation in Malaysia and Thailand

The central analytical puzzle my dissertation asks is why some countries in the developing world have pursued a trajectory of equitable development while others have not. Focusing on two countries within Southeast Asia---Malaysia and Thailand---I seek to explain why Malaysia has done significantly better than Thailand in the areas of income distribution, rural development, taxation, health, and education.; I argue that the variation in equitable development between these two Southeast Asian countries can be traced to the historical formation of different types of political structure, specifically of states and political parties. Malaysia's achievements in equitable development stem from the formation of a "hegemonic-corporatist" state---a polity that combines the discipline, institutionalization, and penetration of an ethnic party, the competence of a coherent bureaucracy, and the moderation of a multi-ethnic governing coalition. This type of state has developed through four formative historical waves dating from the colonial period to the early 1970s. Thailand's weaker record in equitable development is due to the ubiquity of a "hegemonic-bureaucratic state"---a polity that is dominated primarily by the military and that gives little room for the institutionalization of party politics. The inability of parties to represent social interests has been shaped by a cycle of military rule going back to the 19th century reforms of King Chulalongkorn. By tracing the roots of equitable development to a historical process of state and party formation, this dissertation asserts that the origins and structure of institutions are key to an understanding of politics in the developing world.; This dissertation contributes to literature in the comparative-historical tradition as well as to studies of social and economic policy. Data on the policies examined in this study---taxation and spending, rural development, education, and health---is based on fifteen months of fieldwork research in Thailand and Malaysia. While this study is primarily focused on theory-building and empirical analysis, it also carries policy implications for advancing equitable development.