Singapore: Technocracy and transition

• Main Authors: DE VISSER, Maartje, STRAUGHAN, Paulin T.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: Singapore; Covid-19; pandemic; technocratic governance; social solidarity; migrant workers; government trust; socio-economic disparity; Asian Studies; Health Law and Policy; Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration; Public Health
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/3634; https://search.library.smu.edu.sg/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99456712502601&context=L&vid=65SMU_INST:SMU_NUI&lang=en&search_scope=Everything&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,Covid-19%20in%20Asia:%20Law%20and%20policy%20contexts&offset=0
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This chapter describes Singapore’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The government’s strategy revolved around the two poles of technocratic and expedient governance on the one hand and social solidarity, targeted at vulnerable or weaker segments of society, on the other. A crucial factor in implementing this dual strategy is Singapore’s smallness, in spatial and demographic terms, meaning that there are natural limits to emulation by others. At the same time, Singapore’s approach was not flawless. In particular, the wildfire-like spread of the virus in migrant workers’ dormitories emerged as an embarrassing blind spot. Other serious Covid-19-related challenges remain. The most significant of these are managing the narrative to preserve high levels of government trust and a further reckoning with the stark socio-economic disparity exacerbated by the crisis. The latter in particular may be a harbinger of wider socio-political change in Singapore which will continue to unfold long after the immediate health emergency has passed.