All sides in the debates about how and when to democratize appear to agree on one thing: The Singaporean government has been responsible for the economic progress of this illiberal democracy. Many of the government’s policies have indeed enabled a remarkable growth of per capita national income in the country during the last four decades. Yet Singapore’s present economic problems, and the government’s responsibility for the emergence of these, have been underreported. If Singapore had been a liberal democracy, the government would not have been able to muffle the political voices that could have mitigated some of the country’s current economic woes.
About the Authors
Marco Verweij
Marco Verweij is professor of political science at Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany, and coeditor of Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World: Governance, Politics and Plural Perceptions (2006).
Riccardo Pelizzo is Research Fellow at the Centre for Governance and Public Policy at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, and coeditor of The Role of Parliaments in Curbing Corruption (2006).
Although friendly to business, Singapore’s government represses dissent and is far from transparent in its management of public funds. A leading dissident chronicles his struggle for greater openness.
The implicit social bargain that carried many East Asian countries through the Cold War has lost its currency. If the peoples of this region are to secure the blessings of…
