Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:28:05.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reclaiming Singapore's ‘Growth with Equity’ Social Compact

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

LILY ZUBAIDAH RAHIM
LILY ZUBAIDAH RAHIM*
Affiliation:
Department of Government and International Relations, University of [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Singapore's long-serving People's Action Party (PAP) government suffered from a major electoral setback in the 2011 general election and subsequent by-elections. The high-growth population policy, underpinned by the influx of migrants and foreign workers, has strongly fuelled the groundswell of public discontent and is commonly perceived to have contributed to widening income disparities, wage stagnation, and cost of living pressures. This article attempts to make sense of the PAP leadership's dogged commitment to the high-growth population policy despite the electoral backlashes and policy criticisms by prominent public intellectuals and others closely connected to the PAP establishment. It considers Singapore's high-growth population policy and widening income disparity within the context of the authoritarian developmental state's shift away from the ‘growth with equity’ social compact. The article also examines the impact of widening income inequality and other policy lapses on the legitimacy of the PAP government as the clamor for a renewed social compact based on ‘growth with equity’ gathers momentum in the repoliticized polity.

Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 16 , Issue 2: States, Critical Citizens, and the Challenge of Democratization in Southeast Asia , June 2015 , pp. 160 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartels, Larry (2008), Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bellin, Eva (2000), ‘Contingent Democrats: Industrialists, Labor and Democratization in Late-Developing Countries’, World Politics, 52 (January): 175–205.Google Scholar
Chan, Robin (2013), ‘Singapore Must Get Politics Rights: PM Lee’, The Straits Times, 6 July.Google Scholar
Chang, Alex, Chu, Yun-han, and Welsh, Bridget (2013), ‘Southeast Asia: Sources of Regime Support’, Journal of Democracy, 24 (2): 150–63.Google Scholar
Chang, Kyung-Sup (2012), ‘Predicaments of Neoliberalism in the Post-Developmental Liberal Context’, in Kyung-Sup, Chang, Weiss, Linda, and Fine, Ben (eds.), Developmental Politics in Transition: The Neoliberal Era and Beyond, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.70–91.Google Scholar
Chew, Boon Seng (2012), ‘Employment Based Social Protection in Singapore’, ASEAN Economic Bulletin, 29 (3): 218–29.Google Scholar
Chong, Terence (2013), ‘Singapore's Population White Paper: Impending Integration Challenges’, ISEAS Perspective, 4 February, Singapore: ISEAS.Google Scholar
Chongvilavian, Aekapol (2013), ‘Taking the Income Gap in Southeast Asia Seriously’, ISEAS Perspective, 4 April, Singapore: ISEAS.Google Scholar
Hacker, Jacob and Pierson, Paul (2010), ‘Winner Take All Politics: Public Policy, Political Organization and the Precipitous Rise of Top Incomes in the United States’, Politics and Society, 38 (2): 152–204.Google Scholar
Higgott, Richard and Nesadurai, Helen E. S. (2002), ‘Rethinking the Southeast Asian Development Model: Bringing Ethical and Governance Questions In’, ASEAN Economic Bulletin, 19 (1): 27–39.Google Scholar
Huber, Evelyne and Stephens, John (2001), Development and Crisis of the Welfare State: Parties and Polities in Global Markets, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hussain, Zakir (2010), ‘Basic Pay: Tommy Koh Weighs In’, The Straits Times (Singapore), 15 September, 2010.Google Scholar
Krugman, Paul (2006), ‘Graduates Versus Oligarchs’, The New York Times, 27 February.Google Scholar
Lee, Hsien Loong (2013), National Day Speech, http://www.pmo.gov.sg/content/pmsite/mediacentre/speechesninterviews/primeminister .Google Scholar
Lee, Howard (2014), ‘Targeted Minimum Wage – A Positive Step, But More Can Be Done’, The Online Citizen, http://www.theonlinecitizen.com.Google Scholar
Leftwich, Adrian (2008), ‘Developmental States, Effective States and Poverty Reduction: The Primacy of Politics’, UNRISD (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development) Project on Poverty Reduction and Policy Regimes, Geneva: UNRISD.Google Scholar
Lim, Ching Yah (2014), Singapore's National Wages Council: An Insider's View, Singapore: World Scientific.Google Scholar
Lim, Linda and Ann, Lee Soo (2010), ‘Globalizing State, Disappearing Nation’, in Terence Chong (ed.), Managing Success, Singapore: ISEAS, pp. 139–49.Google Scholar
Liow, Eugene (2011), ‘The Neoliberal Developmental State: Singapore a Case Study’, Critical Sociology, 38 (2): 241–64.Google Scholar
Low, Donald (2014a), ‘New Options in Social Security’, in Low, Donald and Vadaketh, Sudhir (eds.), Hard Choices: Challenging the Singapore Consensus, Singapore: NUS Press, pp. 120–38.Google Scholar
Low, Donald (2014b), ‘Governing in the New Normal’, in Low, Donald and Vadaketh, Sudhir (eds.), Hard Choices: Challenging the Singapore Consensus, Singapore: NUS Press, pp. 178–87.Google Scholar
Low, Donald and Vadaketh, Sudhir (eds.) (2014), Hard Choices: Challenging the Singapore Consensus, Singapore: NUS Press.Google Scholar
Mahtani, Shibani (2012), ‘Singapore No.1 for Millionaires’, The Wall Street Journal, 13 July.Google Scholar
Miller, Matt (2012), ‘Singapore's Next Frontier’, The Washington Post, 9 May.Google Scholar
Oxfam Briefing Paper 178 (2014), ‘Working for the Few: Political Capture and Economic Inequality’, 20 January, www.oxfam.org.Google Scholar
Rahim, Lily Zubaidah (1998/2001), The Singapore Dilemma: The Political and Educational Marginality of the Malay Community in Singapore, KL: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Seah, Chiang Nee (2012a), ‘Millionaires Who Don't Feel Rich’, The Star (Malaysia), 9 June.Google Scholar
Seah, Chiang Nee (2012b), ‘Row Over Wage Shock Call’, The Star (Malaysia), 21 April.Google Scholar
Seah, Chiang Nee (2013), ‘Writing the New Singapore Story’, The Star (Malaysia), 17 August.Google Scholar
Shanmugaratnam, Tharman (2012), Budget Speech 2012, http://www.channelnewsasia.com/annex/budget2012speech.Google Scholar
Singapore Democratic Party (2011), ‘Ethical salaries for a Public Service Centered Government’, 2011, Policy Unit, http://yoursdp.org.Google Scholar
Soh, Alvin and Chu, Yin-Wah (2012), ‘The Transition from Neoliberalism to State Neoliberalism in China at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century’, in Kyung-Sup, Chang, Weiss, Linda, and Fine, Ben (eds.), Developmental Politics in Transition: The Neoliberal Era and Beyond, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.166–87.Google Scholar
Sreedharan, Sumitra (2012), ‘Singapore Needs to Accept Immigrants’, Reuters (Singapore), 4 February.Google Scholar
Stiglitz, Joseph (2013), The Price of Inequality, London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Tan, Eugene (2010), ‘The Evolving Social Compact’, in Chong, Terence (ed.), Management of Success, Singapore: ISEAS, pp. 80–99.Google Scholar
Tan, Jee Say (2011), A Nation Wakes: Frontline Reflections, Singapore: Ethos Books.Google Scholar
Tan, Kenneth Paul (2010), ‘The Transformation of Meritocracy’, in Chong, Terence (ed.), Management of Success, Singapore: ISEAS, pp. 272–87.Google Scholar
Weiss, Linda (2012), ‘The Myth of the Neo-Liberal State’, in Kyung-Sup, C., Weiss, Linda, and Fine, Ben (eds.), Developmental Politics in Transition: The Neoliberal Era and Beyond, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 27–42.Google Scholar
White Paper on Population (2013), Sustainable Population for a Dynamic Singapore, Singapore: National Population and Talent Division.Google Scholar
Yap, Mui Teng (2013), ‘Singapore's Population Conundrum: The Great Balancing Act 2’, in Singh, Daljit (ed.), Southeast Asian Affairs 2013, Singapore: ISEAS, pp. 274–84.Google Scholar
Yeoh, Lam Keong (2007), ‘Rethinking a New Social Compact for Singapore’, Ethos, Issue 3, October, p.7–12.Google Scholar
Yeoh, Lam Keong, Low, Donald, and Bhaskaran, Manu (2012), ‘Rethinking Singapore's Social Compact’, Globalis Asian, Singapore: Institute of Policy Studies.Google Scholar