Singapore's One-Party System
Its Relationship to Democracy and Political Stability
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2888828 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tae Yul Nam |
| Year | 1969 |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 465 |
| Publication date | 1969-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Pacific Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0030-851X • E-ISSN: 1715-3379 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2754128 |
| OpenAlex | W2326719971 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
ON AUGUST 9, i965, present Republic of Singapore attained its sovereignty as an independent state by leaving Federation of Malaysia. It was indeed a city-state, to use Aristotle's terminology, on a small island of about 224.5 square miles with a population of less than two million. As of mid-i969, this city-state, with its bustling economy and its large middle class, has firmly established a single-party system under People's Action party (PAP) which commands all 58 seats in Legislative Assembly and provides chief executive officer (prime minister) of Republic. It is purpose of this article to inquire into meaning of parliamentary in Singapore under one-party system and to examine political strategy by which PAP has become sole party in power. The article also considers relationship between one-party system and political stability in task of nation-building in Singapore. Two major hypotheses are presented: first, concept of democracy as defined by PAP leaders reflects developmental style of one form of government as opposed to another; second, given political environment created by cultural, linguistic, and ideological pluralism in Singapore, PAP leaders' concept of and form of government are formulated in order to satisfy a necessary requirement for system-maintenance, that is, political stability of both leadership and followership structures. It was made clear during i962 parliamentary debate on fundamental philosophy of government of Singapore that Lee Kuan Yew, prime minister, viewed as consent of people, usually expressed in terms of their electoral support. Lee defined as: the principle that people should at periodic elections elect their representatives who have then mandate to govern for a fixed number of years in accordance with their programme and policy.1 The crux of definition was that was equated with periodic elections, thereby placing greater emphasis on majority rule than on minority rights and imply
Democracy · Political economy · Political science · Political stability · Political system · Politics · Sociology · Asian Studies and History · Law · Public Administration · Socioeconomic Development in Asia
| Citations per year | 0.15 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2013 - 2016 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |