The Ruling Elite of Singapore

Network of Power and Influence

Michael D. Barr
I.B.Tauris, Bangkok
janvier 2014, 200 p.
ISBN : 978-1-78076-234-0
English text

Michael D. BARR explores the complex and covert networks of power at work in one of the world’s most prosperous countries - the city-state of Singapore. He argues that the contemporary networks of power are a deliberate project initiated and managed by Lee Kuan Yew - former prime minister and Singapore’s ’founding father’ - designed to empower himself and his family.

Barr identifies the crucial institutions of power - including the country’s sovereign wealth funds, and the government-linked companies - together with five critical features that form the key to understanding the nature of the networks. He provides an assessment of possible shifts of power within the elite in the wake of Lee Kuan Yew’s son, Lee Hsien Loong, assuming power, and considers the possibility of a more fundamental democratic shift in Singapore’s political system.

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CONTENTS
 
1 Introduction
 
2 Floor Plan of the Elite
 
3 The Creation and Entrenchment of a National Elite
 
4 Lee Kuan Yew Supreme
 
5 Making a New Elite
 
6 A New Chapter : The Son Rises at Last
 
7 Mapping the Networks of Power and Influence

8. Singapore without Lee Kuan Yew
 
Notes
Bibliography
Index
 
The author :
Michael D. BARR is Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Flinders University, Australia. He is the editor-in-chief of Asian Studies Review and the author of Lee Kuan Yew (2000, 2009), Cultural Politics and Asian Values (2002), Paths Not Taken (edited with C. Trocki, 2008), Constructing Singapore (with Z. Skrbis, 2008) and Singapore (I.B.Tauris, forthcoming)