Singapore’s Political Economy

Abstract

Singapore’s economic success is often explained in terms of its geographical location, an expanding regional or global economy, a hard-working population and, most especially, the honesty, reliability and wisdom of the PAP government (Chen, 1983, pp. 7, 24; Chia, 1989, p. 271; Lim Chong Yah, 1989, pp. 206–7; Sandhu and Wheatley, 1989, pp. 1096–7; Milne and Mauzy, 1990, p. 132). While these factors have contributed to Singapore’s economic development, they are insufficient to elucidate the politics of Singapore’s economy. Such explanations beg important questions about the role of the state and of foreign capital and about the persistence of political conflict and its influence on economic strategy. These are not matters extraneous to economic analysis. Singapore’s economic development needs to be related to its social and political history so that the politics of contemporary economic forms can be fully understood. This implies the necessity of a periodisation of Singapore’s political economy.