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Complementary Institutions in Authoritarian Regimes: The Everyday Politics of Constituency Service in Singapore

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2016

Elvin Ong
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Abstract

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Recent political science research has suggested that autocrats adopt a variety of institutions such as nominally democratic elections and ruling parties to buttress authoritarian durability. In this article I investigate the role of constituency service in an authoritarian regime. I argue that Singapore's Meet-the-People Sessions (MPS) is a complementary institution that can serve to mitigate the weaknesses of other authoritarian institutions, thereby entrenching authoritarianism, rather than serve as a form of democratic representation. First, it is a mechanism to gain valuable everyday information about grievances within the population, thereby allowing the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) to formulate policies and effectively target its response. Second, it is a convenient venue to recruit and socialize ordinary party members, thus helping the PAP forestall potential party decay. Symbolically, conducting MPS is a material performance of the hegemonic ideology of elitism between PAP politicians and ordinary Singaporeans.

Keywords

authoritarian regimesconstituency servicepolitical recruitmenthegemonic performanceSingapore
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , December 2015 , pp. 361 - 390
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by the East Asia Institute 

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