Consolidating authoritarian rule: calibrated coercion in Singapore

George, Cherian

doi:10.1080/09512740701306782

Cited by 122 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…One would not commonly associate democracy with Singapore, instead scholars have more often described Singapore as an illiberal democracy or an authoritarian statesoft, competitive or otherwise (Chua, 1995;Mutalib, 2000;George, 2007;Ortmann, 2011;Mohamed Nasir and Turner, 2013). At the same time, students in Singapore recite the national pledge of allegiance in school every day.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Building a democratic society: exploring Singapore students ' understandings of democracy

Sim

Krishnasamy

2016

Asian Education and Development Studies

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Purpose – One would not commonly associate democracy with Singapore, instead scholars have often described Singapore as an illiberal democracy and an authoritarian state. At the same time, all Singaporean school students recite the national pledge of allegiance in school every morning, in which they pledge “to build a democratic society based on justice and equality”. What do students know about democracy? Are they able to distinguish the characteristics of democratic systems from non-democratic ones? The purpose of this paper is to report on Singapore students’ understandings of democracy. Design/methodology/approach – Using a qualitative instrumental case study design, 64 students from three secondary schools were interviewed and the social studies curriculum was analysed. Findings – Overall, students had poor knowledge of democracy. Consistent with a lack of knowledge of democracy, most students also showed a relatively uncritical acceptance of hierarchy and deference to authority, and held a superficial understanding of citizenship. Civics lessons through social studies, and the school environment did little to promote students’ engagement with democracy. Research limitations/implications – The authors argue that it is important that students be given the opportunities to develop a basic conceptual knowledge of democracy, as they are not capable of discriminating democratic characteristics from non-democratic ones without it. At the very least, students should know the relevance of what they pledge relative to their nation’s model of democracy, or in the absence of a clear model, be encouraged to struggle with the various existing models of democracies so that, as the future of Singapore, they might determine and adapt the ideals that they deem best for the nation. Originality/value – This paper is an original study of Singapore students’ understandings of democracy.

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confidence: 99%

Building a democratic society: exploring Singapore students ' understandings of democracy

Sim

Krishnasamy

2016

Asian Education and Development Studies

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“…Lee won in the end, however, when the government withdrew the newspaper's publishing license and expelled its newly unemployed expatriate journalists (Seow, 1998;Turnbull, 1995). According to George (2007a), Lee miscalculated when he assumed that the Nanyang Siang Pau would be silenced by the arrests, and when it continued its criticism it precipitated a crisis of credibility for the government.…”

Section: Lee Versus the Pressmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…It did so by amending the NPPA to enable the government to restrict sales of foreign publications deemed to be interfering with domestic politics (George, 2007a). Time, the Asian Wall Street Journal, and the Economist soon were 'gazetted' and had their circulations limited after they refused to publish unedited replies by the government to articles critical of Singapore's policies.…”

Section: Singapore Press Lawsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Singapore-style press control? Not in Fiji

Edge

2014

International Communication Gazette

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Constraints imposed on the press in Fiji under the 2010 Media Decree have been compared with the system of press control in Singapore. The two systems are, however, quite different. The type of hegemonic control that has been achieved in Singapore is unlikely to be replicated in Fiji. The press in Singapore was brought to heel over a period of decades through regulation, including licensing, and legal intimidation in a sophisticated system that utilizes corporate control to ensure that journalists exercise self-censorship. A military dictatorship in place in Fiji since 2006 instead criminalized journalism ethics in the Media Decree and has engaged in repression and censorship of journalists. Fiji's press system, and the regime's attempts to control it, were the subject of intense scrutiny in advance of elections planned for September 2014.

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“…Although the opposition won close to 40 percent of eligible votes in recent 2011 general elections, they won only 6.9 percent of the available seats. Finally, the country's media are also famously biased toward the PAP, resulting in a wary and frustrated opposition (George 2012). In sum, the odds of winning are almost always in favor of the incumbent regime rather than the opposition, even in the absence of blatant electoral fraud.…”

Section: Democratic Constituency Service Versus Authoritarian Constitmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…ing down on civil society, censoring the press, curtailing general freedoms of expression and assembly, and marginalizing its political opponents (see, for example, Chua 2003;George 2007;Barr and Skrbis 2009;Rajah 2012). With one of the highest per capita incomes in the world today, the endurance of authoritarianism in Singapore is a deviant case' in a world where economically developed countries are typically liberal democracies.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Complementary Institutions in Authoritarian Regimes: The Everyday Politics of Constituency Service in Singapore

Ong¹

2015

Journal of East Asian Studies

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Consolidating authoritarian rule: calibrated coercion in Singapore

Cited by 122 publications

References 12 publications

Building a democratic society: exploring Singapore students ' understandings of democracy

Building a democratic society: exploring Singapore students ' understandings of democracy

Singapore-style press control? Not in Fiji

Complementary Institutions in Authoritarian Regimes: The Everyday Politics of Constituency Service in Singapore

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