Ernest Lee

Politics in Singapore: A bibliography

This page is intended to serve as a non-exhaustive bibliography for politics in Singapore. It will hopefully be of use to interested readers, students, and researchers from outside the region. I update this occasionally, and am extremely open to suggestions.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of resources pertaining to Singaporean politics. I have tried to include links to the National Library Board (NLB) catalogue for books, and provide DOI links for articles. The Southeast Asian library on Level 11 of the NLB building has an excellent Singapore collection. Members of the public are free to visit the Yale-NUS library during particular hours, while the NLB’s e-resources include access to JSTOR. When books are unavailable through such means, I include a link to publishers’ websites, since many local publishers continue to stock such books at a reasonable price. Some titles can also be found at OAPEN.

Latest revision: August 2024.

Resources

Few datasets pertaining to elections and political beliefs exist, and what is accessible is lacking in scope and detail compared to well-known datasets like the British Electoral Study. In some ways this stymies academic and quantitative research, although there are other qualitative means to understand certain systemic and structural problems within Singapore.

Certain official government resources are often useful for gleaning statistics and a general sense of trends. However, disaggregated or raw data is often not released for sensitivity/privacy reasons, with a beginning shift towards personal data protection. A framework clearly delineating and expediting legitimate requests for public data would be welcomed, so that a subset of information can be made available to Singaporeans, while adopting anonymization procedures allows datasets to be released (in full or in part) without compromising privacy or security.

The Singaporean Society in Numbers is an online book looking to improve quantitative social science in Singapore. Currently is a work-in-progress receiving frequent updates. It is compiled by Shannon Ang, a current sociology PhD candidate at the University of Michigan. It should be noted that its focus is not exclusively on politics, but social sciences (e.g demographic studies), but Section 1 on Public Data links to some relevant datasets, and the as-yet-unwritten section on “Thinking about Numbers” may be useful in the near future.

The Singaporean government provides a number of datasets. As earlier mentioned, this data of some value, but is often not released in a format or with sufficient depth facilitating its use for original research.

  • Report of the Economic Strategies Committee, pub. 2010, and Report of the Committee on the Future Economy, pub. 2017 (Ministry of Trade and Industry). These two reports issued recommendations on economic policy and practice. The latter’s consultative approach, drawing on “9,000 stakeholders”, offers some insights into the political economy of Singapore. At 32 and 144 pages respectively, the latter provides a clearer sense of the economic direction recommended for the future, although readers ought to bear in mind that these remain recommendations from working committees rather than press releases or roadmaps published by the ministry itself.
  • Singstat. Managed by the Department of Statistics, researchers can generate tables across a variety of categories, and the methodology is relatively well-documented. Political information, as well as the ability to disaggregate and sort by geography (e.g neighbourhood, GRC) is a glaring omission for many statistics, and section on ‘Society’ is largely limited to culture, recreation and health statistics. Also contains data from the 2010 and 2000 Census.
  • gov.sg. A portal for Singapore’s public data. Useful for financial, economic and infrastructural data, although certain categories of data remain missing, similar to Singstat. I am unsure of the extent of overlap between Singstat and Data.gov.sg, although the presence of a data request section (which links to their GitHub page) suggests a greater amount of responsiveness to individual inquiries. (Untested by me, but contact me with your experiences with the developers).
  • POFMA’d. A dataset maintained by Teo Kai Xiang, tracking uses of Singapore’s ‘fake news’ legislation (Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act).

Think tanks, which are often linked to or enjoy a strong relationship with Singaporean universities or government agencies, also publish resources and reports of strong academic value. Some are more descriptive, and are intended for consumption by policymakers and political figures, while others are more normative in nature. Many now host online seminars amidst the ongoing pandemic, which are often accessible to non-students.

  • The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), an autonomous research centre of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), frequently publishes working papers. These are often concise and topical (although some do exceed 100 pages), and researchers may find it productive to filter down reports to “Policy Studies, Public Management and Governance” or “Social Policy”.
  • The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), under Nanyang Technological University, frequently releases working papers, commentaries, event reports, policy reports and various other documents. Useful for comparative politics, international relations and security studies, especially when filtering down to specific research centers like the Centre of Excellence for National Security, Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.
  • The Singapore Economic Roundtable, convened by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, meets twice-yearly to discuss macro-economic policy. This platform contains great potential for researchers and analysts of Singapore’s future macroeconomic direction and political economy, as it brings together policymakers, academics, business leaders and private sector economists. Unfortunately, the reports which are released are extremely brief, numbering a handful of pages. Interestingly, it is one of the few discussions that publicly describes itself as being conducted under Chatham House rules.
  • Political parties’ manifestoes and publications are of varying accessibility and quality. Nonetheless, their websites often minimally contain press releases and publicity media.

Social media sites offer more topical discussions pertaining to Singaporean governance and politics. Many are run by civil society groups, and some are not based in Singapore (but often have Singaporeans participating or writing).

  • CAPE (Community for Advocacy and Political Education) is run by a community of students based in Yale-NUS College aiming to increase civil consciousness and political literacy. Their Facebook page publishes a number of infographics on issues like constitutional challenges to Section 377A, and their resource on the three branches of the Singaporean Government (pub. Aug 2017) remains relevant. Their own Reading List contains suggestions on Singaporean politics, law and certain civic and political issues.
  • Singapore Unbound is an American-based initiative to envision “new possibilities for the idea of Singapore”. Its flagship activity is the Singapore Literature Festival in New York, and they maintain a broad focus on freedom of expression (especially within the arts).
  • The Minimum Income Standard project, comprising a team of researchers (notably Teo You Yenn), contains a full report estimating the household budgets of Singaporeans (in particular older ones) needed to survive. It uses a consensus-based approach to derive an income standard that reflects diverse needs and are grounded in values and principles of Singaporeans.
  • The Online Citizen: Describing itself as Singapore’s “longest-running independent online media platform”, it generally publishes dissenting articles and coverage written by its editor, Terry Xu, or submitters. Taken offline as of Sept 2021, following suspension of license by IMDA. The Independent is a publication in a similar vein.
  • Straits Times (some paywalled articles) and CNA: Generally considered to have a pro-establishment editorial slant. The latter exists under Mediacorp, a conglomerate under the state-owned Temasek Holdings. CNA is of the few sources for direct coverage of parliamentary proceedings, given the absence of regular live broadcasting.
  • Instagram pages like Left.SG produce infographics and commentary.

Books and Articles

Singaporean Governance and Ideology

Political Sociology

Singaporean Foreign Policy

Singapore’s international relations and foreign policy cannot be separated from that of the wider regional context and geopolitics.

Law

  • The Constitution of Singapore: a contextual analysis (2015), Kevin Tan. Although Singapore’s democratic structure appears to be Westminster-style, its Constitution has evolved significant with regards to MP elections, its Elected Presidency, its cabinet, the judiciary and its limits, and the absence of a constitutional right to property. Tan explains such changes with reference to the survival and security narrative of the PAP, ethnic and religious pluralism, and the wider geopolitical context. It also contextualizes the constitution vis-à-vis other aspects of governance, arguing that the rule of law remains strong, amidst a regime seeking economic legitimacy and a stronger basis for its rule.
  • Authoritarian rule of law : legislation, discourse, and legitimacy in Singapore (2012), Jothie Rajah. Detailed account from a public law perspective of the Singaporean state’s use of legality and public discourse to tackle public dissent while maintaining its own legitimacy. Challenges the ‘democratization’ thesis of economic prosperity and concomitant civil and political liberalization, with a focus on the promotion of market economy. Analyzes the narrative of survivalism, and its continuity with colonial constructs of the population. Argues that civil rights activists can challenge the state through focusing on rights violations and competing interpretations of national values and narratives.

Media

Social Issues

  • This Is What Inequality Looks Like (2018), Teo You Yenn. Teo’s sociological background allows for an academic work offering a first-hand, more ethnographic, activist accounts of the lived experience of inequality. Her critique “differentiated deservedness” resonates with the literature on Singaporean meritocracy, while offering a highly empathetic look at how society came to think of some citizens as more deserving than others, and later chapters link normative recommendations with ideas of democratic belonging and citizenship. One of few books here to receive wide traction in public circles and policy discourse.
  • Managing diversity in Singapore: policies and prospects (2016), ed. Mathew Mathews & Chiang Wai Fong. Although the title is self-explanatory, this collection of essays is notable for its extension of scope beyond conventional spaces of housing policy, religious spaces, education, and language. The book is split into 3 parts, racial, linguistic and religious diversity, livable space and class, and a more anthropological analysis on the family, Chapters on bicultural programmes, film and digital media, and even the armed forces offer insights into spaces other academics often pay scant attention to.
  • The Myth of the Lazy Native (1977), Syed Hussein Alatas. A historical-sociological study often referenced as the text which highlighted the constructed identity of the Malay peoples in Singapore. A scathing critique with its ideas and methods still relevant today.
  • Also, see the reading list by Academia.sg on “Race, migration, nationhood”. NB: Most entries are paywalled journal articles.

To-Do?  

Contributions and suggestions are greatly welcomed. Since this list was originally born out of a short post on the difficulties and workarounds I faced in obtaining data in Singapore for a quantitative essay, there are some categories of writing and media that I remain unsure about in their inclusion. They may appear as a separate list of reading and resources in the future, or have short sections here.

  • The political history of Singapore
  • Politics and resistance in various forms of media: poetry, prose, film, music
  • A summary of the legislative/executive/judiciary functions in Singapore, or those of parties. However, I suspect better primers exist elsewhere.
  • Security and defence issues
  • Singapore’s internationalism: its participation in international organizations, agencies and forums.
  • Transnational and comparative views, both ‘regional’ (often, but not always ASEAN) and internationally

Changelog:

  • 18 Feb 2020. First draft published.
  • 20 May 2020. Minor updates.
  • 21 Aug 2020. Placeholder warning.
  • 26 Oct 2020. Updates to media, urban section.
  • 24 Nov 2021. Updates to media, pol sociology sections.