Atlas / Organisations / Singapore Developmental State
Singapore Developmental State
PAP · 1959– · Singapore · Technocratic Authoritarian · Electoral party · coding confidence high
Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →
Core principles
Meritocratic technocratic administration, social discipline and openness to global capital, with permanent single-party dominance.
Economic model
Very open trade and investment, state-owned holding companies, compulsory savings, public housing for eighty percent of citizens.
Organisation of powers
Regular contested elections that the same party always wins; defamation suits and constituency rules that constrain opposition.
Reading note
Free markets and heavy state ownership at once, with contested but not free elections. A standing challenge to the idea that prosperity requires pluralism.
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EC · Economic organisation · scored +05
Very open trade and investment alongside majority state ownership of land and housing. Coded mildly market.
- Documented act or statuteAround eighty percent of residents live in public housing built by the Housing Development Board.
- Documented act or statuteTemasek and GIC hold state investment portfolios across the domestic economy.
CU · Social and cultural order · scored +06
Coded +6: a conservative social order maintained alongside economic openness.
- Documented act or statuteSex between men was decriminalised in 2022 and the constitution simultaneously amended to shield the marriage definition from challenge.
AU · Organisation of power · scored +06
Coded +6 rather than higher: elections are genuinely contested and opposition candidates take seats.
- Documented act or statuteOpposition parties have held parliamentary seats continuously since 1981 and won a group constituency in 2011.
- Documented act or statuteDefamation actions against opposition figures and constituency boundary revision constrain competition.
SC · Scale of decision · scored +07
Coded +7: a unitary city-state with no subordinate elected tier.
- Documented act or statuteTown councils are administered by elected MPs, tying municipal services to constituency outcomes.
ID · Rule of membership · scored +02
Coded +2: multiracial by design, with ethnic quotas in housing and reserved presidential elections.
- Documented act or statuteThe Ethnic Integration Policy sets ethnic quotas in every public housing block.
CH · Method and tempo · scored −06
Coded −6: change through legislation and long-term planning.
- Documented act or statuteConstitutional and policy change has been executed through parliamentary majority continuously since 1959.
Nearest organisations by measured distance
Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.
- Moroccan Monarchy3.6
- People's Party3.9
- Tanzimat Reforms4.0
- Bismarckian State Conservatism4.4
- Les Républicains4.4
- Colorado Party4.4
Countries
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Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.
Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.