The Limits of Authoritarian Governance in Singapore's Developmental State

by Lily Zubaidah Rahim (Editor), Michael D. Barr (Editor)

This book delves into the limitations of Singapore’s authoritarian governance model. In doing so, the relevance of the Singapore governance model for other industrialising economies is systematically examined. Research in this book examines the challenges for an integrated governance model that has proven durable over four to five decades. The editors argue that established socio-political and economic formulae are now facing unprecedented challenges. Structural pressures associated with Singapore’s particular locus within globalised capitalism have fostered heightened social and material inequalities, compounded by the ruling party’s ideological resistance to substantive redistribution. As ‘growth with equity’ becomes more elusive, the rationale for power by a ruling party dominated by technocratic elite and state institutions crafted and controlled by the ruling party  and its bureaucratic allies is open to more critical scrutiny.

Genres: Politics

472 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 6, 2019

About the author

Lily Zubaidah Rahim is an Associate Professor in Government and International Relations. She lectures on Southeast Asian Politics and Reformist Islam. The Singapore Dilemma: The Political and Educational Marginality of the Malay Community, (KL: Oxford University Press, 2001) established her as a leading researcher on political and social developments in Singapore. The book precipitated a public debate on Singapore’s nation-building paradigm particularly after it received prominent coverage in the Malaysian and Singaporean newspapers. The policy significance of The Singapore Dilemma led to its translation in 2004 by the Malaysian National Institute for Translation to the Malay language.

Building on the themes in The Singapore Dilemma, Lily Zubaidah’s second sole-authored book Singapore in the Malay World: Building and Breaching Regional Bridges (London: Routledge, 2009) focuses on Singapore’s mercurial relations with neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia.

She is currently engaged in a global project on gender justice and shariah reforms in Islam. Another project funded by an ARC Discovery Grant (2003-2006), led to the publication of an edited book entitled ‘Paths Not Taken’, published by the National University of Singapore Press in 2008.

A Singaporean national, Lily Zubaidah’s international exposure includes extended periods of teaching and research in Malaysia, Singapore and The Netherlands. In 2001, she presented a paper on indigenous minorities in Southeast Asia at the historic UN Conference on Racism and Public Policy in Durban, South Africa. In 2003, she was commissioned by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, to prepare a report on ethnic minorities in Singapore and Malaysia. In 2008 and 2009, she was engaged by the Asia-Europe Foundation as a consultant on ethnic tensions and inter-faith dialogue in Asia.

Her multidisciplinary research interests have been published in numerous international journals and book chapters. They include an eclectic range spanning from governance in authoritarian states, democratisation, development, ethnicity, regionalism and political Islam. She was Co-convenor of the 2008 Malaysia-Singapore Society Colloquium at the Australian National University.

(updated June 13, 2013)