Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe "Singapore model" constitutes only the second explicit attempt by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to learn from a foreign country following Mao Zedong's pledge to contour "China's tomorrow" on the Soviet Union experience during the early 1950s. This paper critically evaluates policy transfers from Singapore to China in the post-Mao era. It re-examines how this Sino-Singaporean regulatory engagement came about historically following Deng Xiaoping's visit to Singapore in 1978, and offers a careful re-reading of the degree to which actual policy borrowing by China could transcend different state ideologies, abstract ideas and subjective attitudes. Particular focus is placed on the effects of CCP cadre training in Singaporean universities and policy mutation within two government-to-government projects, namely the Suzhou Industrial Park and the Tianjin Eco-City. The paper concludes that the "Singapore model," as applied in post-Mao China, casts institutional reforms as an open-ended process of policy experimentation and adaptation that is fraught with tension and resistance.

In recent decades, there have been substantial reforms in governance and administration based on neoliberal assumptions, market-driven policies, and neo-managerial principles. These contemporary reforms aimed at reinventing government and restructuring the state began in a few advanced capitalist nations, and gradually became a global model affecting countries around the world, including the interventionist developmental states in Asia. This article examines the case of Singapore in terms of the recent trends of reform in its public governance and explores the major local and global factors shaping this reform agenda. It also briefly considers the implications of these changes for the state, bureaucracy, and people in Singapore.