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\"This book presents insights on Singapore's politics and governance from leading thinkers, based on selected commentaries from Singapore Perspectives conference series co-published by Institute of Policy Studies and World Scientific. Contributed by the who's who of Singapore's government, business and academia circles, they provide diverse viewpoints over state-society relations, governing principles, electoral politics, foreign policy, among other important issues. Will consensus or contest secure Singapore's future? Should pragmatism be retained as Singapore's governing philosophy? What if the nation-state is no longer the key organisational unit of the international community? What if Singapore has to choose between China and the United States? What if Singapore becomes a two- or multi-party system? This volume explores a range of possible answers to these questions and more.\" -- Back cover.

Prominent scholars across the political divide and academic disciplines analyze how the dominant political parties in Malaysia and Singapore, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and the People’s Action Party (PAP), have stayed in power. With a focus on developments in the last decade and the tenures of Prime Ministers Najib Tun Razak and Lee Hsien Loong, the authors offer a range of explanations for how these regimes have remained politically resilient.

This book explores this inherent contradiction present in most facets of Singaporean media, cultural and political discourses, and identifies the key regulatory strategies and technologies that the ruling People Action Party (PAP) employs to regulate Singapore media and culture, and thus govern the thoughts and conduct of Singaporeans. It establishes the conceptual links between government and the practice of cultural policy, arguing that contemporary cultural policy in Singapore has been designed to shape citizens into accepting and participating in the rationales of government. Outlining the historical development of cultural policy, including the recent expansion of cultural regulatory and administrative practices into the ‘creative industries’, Terence Lee analyzes the attempts by the Singaporean authorities to engage with civil society, the ways in which the media is used to market the PAP’s policies and leadership and the implications of the internet for the practice of governmental control. Overall, The Media, Cultural Control and Government in Singapore offers an original approach towards the rethinking of the relationship between media, culture and politics in Singapore, demonstrating that the many contradictory discourses around Singapore only make sense once the politics and government of the media and culture are understood. 1. The Politics of Culture: A Mediated Introduction 2. Cultural Governmentality and Citizenship 3. Administering Culture: Cultural Policy, Regulation and the Creative Industries 4. Gestural Politics: A ‘New’ Civil Society 5. The Internet, Surveillance and Technological Auto-Regulation 6. Media Governmentality and Political Communication 7. Conclusion: Always ‘New’: Governing Contradictions with Consistencies Terence Lee is Chair of Communication and Media Studies in the School of Media Communication and Culture, and Research Fellow of the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University, Australia. He is the joint editor of Political Regimes and the Media in Asia (Routledge, 2008), and publishes widely on various aspects of media, politics, and culture in Singapore. \"This is a carefully crafted, detailed explication of the Singaporean government's powerful effect on Singapore media. Lee (communication and media studies, Murdoch Univ., Australia) provides insights into why the government promotes specific messages to the public and what those messages actually mean when interpreted by those who must comply with governmental expectations... Recommended [for] upper-division undergraduates [and] graduate students.\" - M. A. Williams-Hawkins, Ball State University; CHOICE, March 2012 \"Terence Lee's book is a provocative analysis of twenty-first century Singapore. One of its key strengths is the attempt to apply to a non-liberal-democratic context the perspectives of major theorists such as Foucault and Williams.\" -- Dr. Cherian George, Nanyang Technological University, South East Asia Research 19:4, (2011)

The economic success of Singapore has established the country as a model for other nations. Yet until now the ideas behind this accomplishment have not been critically examined. Communitarian Ideology and Democracy in Singapore fills this gap. The book outlines the policies the ruling party has adopted over the past three decades. It charts the government's move away from Western concepts towards the evolution of 'Asian democracy'. The author analyses this anti-liberal democracy and the government's motives for repackaging cultural heritage into a national ideology of Asian communitarianism. This book avoids the polarization that has tended to characterise texts on Asian governments. It neither concentrates on a history of authoritarian repression nor unequivocally praises the regime but critically examines its political success. As such it provides a new and balanced account to the student of Singapore politics.

The Limits of Alignmentis an engaging and accessible study that explores how small states and middle powers of Southeast Asia ensure their security in a world where they are overshadowed by greater powers. John D. Ciorciari challenges a central concept in international relations theory-that states respond to insecurity by either balancing against their principal foes, \"bandwagoning\" with them, or declaring themselves neutral. Instead, he shows that developing countries prefer limited alignments that steer between strict neutrality and formal alliances to obtain the fruits of security cooperation without the perils of undue dependency. Ciorciari also shows how structural and normative shifts following the end of the Cold War and the advent of U.S. primacy have increased the prevalence of limited alignments in the developing world and that these can often place constraints on U.S. foreign policy. Finally, he discusses how limited alignments in the developing world may affect the future course of international security as China and other rising powers gather influence on the world stage.

This collection brings us up-to-date on the contemporary situations in the new democracies of East Asia, and debates on the prospect of introducing liberal democracy to this part of the world. The chapters cover a wide range of cases, including in-depth examination of China, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, and broad comparisons of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, and other countries. The contributors, who are foremost experts in their fields, examine the roles performed by civil society, social classes, and strategic groups, as well as the intertwining of values and interests in the transition to, consolidation of, and reversal from democracy. They also evaluate the extent to which these new democracies have facilitated regional peace, helped extend social welfare benefits, bolstered poverty alleviation, and upheld the rule of law and human rights. Grounding their analyses in the historical development of these societies, and/or examining them through the comparative strategy they also explore the desirability of liberal democracy, whether in the subjective assessment of the Asian people or in relation to the social-political challenges faced by these Asian countries. East Asia’s New Democracies will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative politics, political science, political sociology, East and Southeast Asian studies. Yin-wah Chu is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University. Siu-lun Wong is Professor and Director of the Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong. \"This volume is a very useful update on the status of democratic transition and consolidation in East and Southeast Asia...On the whole, this is a laudable effort to provide a comprehensive survey of democratization and its consequences in East Asia. It has succeeded, to a considerable extent, in applying mainstream theories of democratization to the region’s rich but varied experiences.\" - Minxin Pei, Pacific Affairs: Volume 85, No. 1 - March 2012 1. East Asia’s New Democracies: An Introduction Yin-wah Chu and Siu-lun Wong Part 1: Transition, Consolidation, Reversal: Actors Then and Now 2. Social and Political Developments in China: Challenges for Democratization Jude Howell 3. Civil Society and Democracy-Making in Taiwan: Reexamining the Link Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao and Ming-sho Ho 4. The Bottom-Up Nature of Korean Democratization: Civil Society, Anti-Americanism and Popular Protest Bruce Cumings 5. Modernization Theory’s Last Redoubt: Democratization in East and Southeast Asia Mark R. Thompson 6. Development and Change in Korean Democracy since the Democratic Transition in 1987: The Three Kims’ Politics and After Hyug-Baeg Im 7. Thailand’s Conservative Democratization Kevin Hewison Part 2: Democracy in East Asia? Achievements and Enduring Challenges 8. Democracy and Disorder: Will Democratization Bring Greater Regional Instability to East Asia? Amitav Acharya 9. Democracy’s Double Edge: Financing Social Policy in Industrial East Asia Joseph Wong 10. Devolution and Democracy: A Fragile Connection Ledivina V. Cariño 11. Rule of Law and Democracy: Lessons for China from Asian Experiences Randall Peerenboom 12. Group Rights and Democracy in Southeast Asia Beng Huat Chua 13. Diagnosing the Micro Foundation of Democracy in Asia: Evidence from the AsiaBarometer Survey: 2003-2008 Satoru Mikami and Takashi Inoguchi