Semi-democracy in Malaysia : withstanding the pressures for regime change

By examining Malaysia's political record, one is able to specify more closely a category of "semi-' or "limited democracies', as well as assess the increasing pressures for further regime opening. During the two years before Malaysia's general election in 1990, socioeconomic trends, elite-level decisionmaking, and external influences implied transition toward broader democratic procedures and a more competitive party system. But in the period since that election, many semi-democratic controls have been swiftly reimposed. One concludes that semi-democracies may possess greater intrinsic resilience than "ideal-type' authoritarian regimes, enabling state elites effectively to resist pressures toward full democracy. -from Author