The political economy of social control in Singapore

the long version

Singapore's rapid economic growth has attracted much admiration. But can this success be sufficiently explained by canny exploitation of a niche in the global free market? This book shows that there is a complex relationship between economic strategy, social control and political conflict in Singapore. It does this by looking at the regulatory functions of major state institutions. Public housing increases state control and forces people into wage labour even while supplying a high standard of accommodation. Singaporeans are sorted, stratified and fragmented by the education system. Racism and patriarchal relations, seen in language, population planning and eugenics policies, are integral to education. Elections and parliament in Singapore are mechanisms for forcing submission, converting submission into consent and confining politics to parliamentary politics. The legal system functions to criminalise politics and politicise crime. The findings of all the chapters are drawn together to show how the system of social control has developed in phases in response to the changing nature of political resistance.