In the theory of political development, modernization theorists believe that economic development will result in political democracy. Yet this is often not the case in the Third World. Being one of the developing countries, Malaysia is not regarded as a truly democratic polity by most scholars. This author argues that ethnic politics has been a characteristic of Malaysian politics for years. The reason that Malaysia's economic development did not bring about further democratization is because the authoritarian polity is closely connected to the social structure of Malaysia's ethnic politics. Due to ethnic politics, together with Dr. Mahathir's political manipulation of economic development and authoritarian democracy, Mr. Mahathir is able to continue to remain in power.