Singapore in the Global System: Relationship, Structure and ChangeThis book tracks the phases of Singapore’s economic and political development, arguing that its success was always dependent upon the territories links with the surrounding region and the wider global system, and suggests that managing these links today will be the key to the country’s future. Singapore has followed a distinctive historical development trajectory. It was one of a number of cities which provided bases for the expansion of the British empire in the East. But the Pacific War provided local elites with their chance to secure independence. In Singapore the elite disciplined and mobilized their population and built successfully on their colonial inheritance. Today, the city-state prospers in the context of its regional and global networks, and sustaining and nurturing these are the keys to its future. But there are clouds on the elite’s horizons; domestically, the population is restive with inequality, migration and surplus-repression causing concern; and internationally, the strategy of constructing a business-hub economy is being widely copied and both Hong Kong and Shanghai are significant competitors. This book discusses these issues and argues that although success is likely to characterize Singapore’s future, the elite will have to address these significant domestic and international problems. |
From inside the book
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... role to elites, who must read enfolding structures, mobilize their domestic populations and order their political projects; it addresses the historical trajectories of societies which are marked out by these exchanges; it considers the ...
... role was terminated by the 1857 Indian Mutiny; thereafter the British government assumed control. The colonial trading cities of Calcutta and Madras34 linked the sub-continent to the metropolitan centre; they also provided bases for ...
... role of the colonial government has been debated; it affirmed an ideal of laissez-faire in the nineteenth century; later, in the 1960s, as domestic problems mounted it was revised to 'positive non-intervention' whereby the government ...
... role, the local form of life is comfortable but doubts, which revolve around the nature of the incumbent elite, are expressed about the longer term. A number of scenarios can be identified: • Scenario 1, Muddle Through Alone: the PAP ...
... role. • Scenario 2, Adoption of the Singapore Model: Hong Kong's elite seek to compete energetically within the global system and follow Singapore47 in upgrading Hong Kong's global economic niche. • Scenario 3, Deep Integration: 48 Hong ...
Contents
Impact and reply 40 | |
General crisis 58 | |
New trajectories 79 | |
Locating Singapore 100 | |
Trading cities 160 | |
Unfolding trajectories 197 | |
Notes 216 | |
Bibliography 263 | |
Index 275 | |
Other editions - View all
Singapore in the Global System: Relationship, Structure and Change Peter Preston Limited preview - 2007 |
Singapore in the Global System: Relationship, Structure and Change Peter Wallace Preston No preview available - 2007 |