Liberalism Disavowed: Communitarianism and State Capitalism in Singapore - Softcover

Huat, Chua Beng

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9814722502 ISBN 13: 9789814722506

Publisher: NUS Press

Synopsis

In Liberalism Disavowed, Chua Beng Huat examines the rejection of Western-style liberalism in Singapore and the way the People's Action Party has forged an independent non-Western ideology. This book explains the evolution of this communitarian ideology, with focus on three areas: public housing, multiracialism and state capitalism, each of which poses different challenges to liberal approaches. With the passing of the first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew and the end of the Cold War, the party is facing greater challenges from an educated populace that demands greater voice. This has led to liberalization of the cultural sphere, greater responsiveness and shifts in political rhetoric, but all without disrupting the continuing hegemony of the PAP in government.

About this title

About the Author:

Beng Huat Chua holds the Provost Chair in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore and directs the Cultural Studies in Asia program at the NUS Asia Research Institute. He is the author of Structure, Audience and Soft Power in East Asian Pop Culture, Life Is Not Complete without Shopping: Consumption Culture in Singapore, Political Legitimacy and Housing: Singapore’s Stakeholder Society, and Communitarian Ideology and Democracy in Singapore.

Review:

"Liberalism Disavowed is an important book. It's the best discussion of the history and significance of Singapore’s distinctive political economy. Beng Huat Chua’s argument is theoretically rich, well supported with ample sources, and benefits from an insider’s perspective. He persuasively argues that the People’s Action Party has maintained, even reinforced, its left social democratic orientation over the past fifty years, in contrast to the mainstream view that it has abandoned its socialist roots in its quest for capitalist success in a globalized world."

(Daniel A. Bell, Shandong University and Tsinghua University, author of The China Model: Political Meritocracy and the Limits of Democracy)

"This penetrating account of the Singapore model by a senior Singaporean sociologist explains both why the model works and why it is not transferable to other countries.... Contrary to conventional wisdom, he argues that neither repression nor a cultural preference for authoritarianism explains the regime's success; rather, the state's successful policies - rooted in social democratic ideology and meritocratic leadership - and the island nation's strategic vulnerability explain why the population has accepted an elitist, repressive system for over 50 years and why it will probably continue to do so."

(Foreign Affairs)

"An informative and nuanced publication on this question of liberalism's place in contemporary Singapore. The publication serves as a useful text on both the city-state's peculiar politics and the nature of liberalism itself as it is actualised - or rejected - in the modern world."

(Mekong Review)

About this edition

• Publisher: NUS Press
• ISBN 10: 9814722502
• ISBN 13: 9789814722506
• Binding: Paperback