As a significant social democratic force in Malaysia in particular and in the Asian region in general, the DAP's political theory and practice deserve to be examined and further compared with the European social democracy in order to participate in the so-called "global third way debate" advocated by Anthony Giddens. Hence, this study aims to scrutinize from a historical perspective the different interpretations of "the third way" of the DAP, which had undergone certain revisions from European democratic socialism throughout its actual political struggle in Malaysia. / Malaysia is a multi-racial country made up of four great civilizations and it has adopted a constitutional monarchy after its independence. The ruling government of this country, dominated by the Malay race, stresses on the so-called authoritative developmentalism by which repressive measures have been imposed upon all forms of opposition forces. The Democratic Action Party (DAP), a social democratic type of opposition party mainly supported by the non-Malays, arose in the mid sixties and has since remained loyal to the parliamentary system. Hence, what is the difference between the social democracy embedded in the DAP in terms of its theory and practice and that of Europe? What are the challenges faced by the DAP in a Malaysian multi-racial political environment? And what has it contributed to the country in terms of nation building in Malaysia? / The late 1990s saw a new trend in "the magic turn of the European social democracy". The British sociologist Anthony Giddens, in transcending the traditional "left" and "right" politics of Europe, has advocated "the third way" for "the renewal of social democracy." The scope of such studies, however, has been confined to the theory and practice of the European socialist/social democratic/labour parties and greatly neglected the social democratic parties in the Asian region. / This study will give a full range of analysis on the historical background of the founding of DAP, the origin and formation of DAP's political ideology, its political line and party policy, the operation of party organization structure, power struggle within different factions, party control under the leadership of its Secretary General, Lim Kit Siang, and the electoral strategies, tactics and performance of the DAP in the past four decades. In short, the historical setting, political structure, economic system, racial relations and cultural factors of the country had altered, or the other way round, reinforced the "human agency" of the party leaders while trying to challenge and reshape the nation-building policy of Malaysia in a non-violent manner, which followed a path similar to that of the centre-leftists in Europe although in actual practice, the DAP's political journey is in itself unique. This study on the DAP is to find out how far the national struggle for social democracy has revealed differences in policies and divergences on legislative provisions. / 丘光耀. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2005. / 參考文獻(p. 376-398). / Adviser: Yuen-sang Leung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: A, page: 0297. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (Zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2005. / Can kao wen xian (p. 376-398). / Qiu Guangyao.