Behind Malaysia's 'Miracle': A Veblenian Perspective on Mahathir's Era of Economic Modernization

摘要

Thorstein Veblen was one of the most original American socio-economic thinkers. It may be said that he was ahead of his time in explaining many of the theoretical problems of today's economics. In the Theory of the Leisure Class, for instance, his cogent elaboration on the predatory behavior of human economic actions provides an important conceptual point of entry into many of the critical inquiries of global capitalist emulation in contemporary Asian regions. More specifically, his precinct of invidious distinction characterized by wasteful expenditure on symbolic, rather than instrumental functions of economic activities shows that pecuniary emulation of global capitalism is not necessarily akin to economic modernization as commonly perceived by many of the developing Asian countries.