Prickly Ambivalence: State, Society and Semidemocracy in Malaysia

British colonial policies set the stage for the subsequent balance between state and civil society in Malaysia, including the persistent racial stratification of the public sphere, cross-racial differences in modes of state–society engagement and the focus on development of citizenship skills for some groups and autonomous self-regulation for others. This article explores the vestiges and implications of this legacy in Malaysia to assess, first, how determining an effect the colonial experience had on later political developments; and, second, how consideration of the sort of civil society and state–society relations that emerged out of this historical context adds nuance to our understanding of semi-democracy.