Communitarian Ideology and Democracy in Singapore

Chua Beng-Huat is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore.

• Introduction 1 Ideological trajectory: from authoritarianism to Communitarianism 2 Reopening ideological discussion 3 Pragmatism of the PAP government: a critical Assessment 4 The business of living: transformation of everyday life 5 The making of a new nation: cultural construction and national identity 6 Not depoliticised but ideologically successful: the public housing programme 7 Confucianisation abandoned 8 Building the political middle ground 9 Towards a non-liberal communitarian democracy, Conclusion

'As a reading of post-colonial Singapore history it is an invaluable text, as it recasts the developments of the last three decades in a new analytical light, and is full of useful interpretations of material which in themselves would be familiar to any informed commentator on this fascinating little society, and it raises important questions about the future of democracy.' - Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol 29 No.2 98