Derek Thompson

POS 350
10/2/2014
Country Report: Singapore

The country that I have decided to research is the island country of Singapore. I Visited
China about 8 years ago and saw firsthand the Socialist ideologies in action. They try to keep
their actions secret to foreigners, but there were a few occasions where I saw what this type of
government can do. I am not allowed to research China further, but I was so taken in by Asia
that I decided to stay within the continent. I hope you enjoy my country report on Singapore.
Singapore is a parliamentary republic with a unicameral parliamentary. Unicameral
means that it has only one chamber. In contrast, the United States is bi-cameral with Congress
and the House of Representatives. The parliamentary serves as the legislative branch and the
members of congress are voted in by whoever receives the highest percentage of the vote. This
is also called First-past-the-post, which is in contrast to proportional representation, which is
the percent of votes equals the percent of seats the party occupies. The executive power in
Singapore is controlled by the prime minister and the president. The prime minister has the
real power of the executive branch having a role similar to the president of the United States
albeit not nearly as influential. The prime minister handles elections, police corruption, and
public services to name a few. The president of Singapore is more of a ceremonial position and
the only real power that they hold is veto power on a few things. The president is also elected
with a FPTP approach. The electoral system is based on a Plurality/Majority which means that

the party that wins the highest percentage of the vote or at least 51 percent of the vote is
declared the winner.
Singapore has a Dominant party system. There were 7 parties that ran in the last
election, but only two parties came away with seats in parliament. The Workers Party had the
second highest total of seats won with 6 of the 87 seats available. The other 81 seats went to
the party that has dominated the elections, and in fact has won a majority in the house since
1959. This party is the Peoples Action Party. In the most recent election only these two parties
managed to gain seats in parliamentary and thus control the house, although, the PAP are the
only ones who really control the government. This is a dominant party system because on the
PAP have a realistic chance to win control of parliament.
In the most recent elections, Singapore had a relatively large voter turnout. They
reported that 93.18 percent of eligible voters turned out to vote. However, this does not count
the ineligible voters that were of voting age but did not qualify or chose not to vote. This
number drops to just 52.95 percent of age eligible voters that voted in the most recent
election. Singapore already employs Compulsory Voting which means that there are
punishments for not voting. An idea to increase voter participation would be to test out
rewards for voting instead of a punishment, or to increase the severity of the punishment if one
does not vote. An increase in education would also most likely make voter participation go up
because a larger percent of the population would have an opinion on the matter.
Singapore is not a pure Democracy, but cannot be considered authoritarian either.
Singapore takes from both sides and has created itself to be a hybrid. Freedom House rates

Singapore a 4.5 on their scale which is partly free. It is democratic in that it holds elections that
can be voted on by anyone over 21 years old. It is authoritarian in that the elections are
pointless because a single party has held power for decades. The democratic principles of
having multiple parties able to run for office gives Singapore a push towards being a
Democracy, but then realizing that it is a Dominant Party System where only one party has
control brings it back towards a more authoritarian feel. The government of Singapore has
control over the media and its propaganda towards re-electing the Peoples Action Party has
been successful for decades. The character of the elections is not good because the other
parties have no hope of actually holding a majority. The Workers Party was lucky this last
election to win the 6 seats that it did out of the 87 available. With all of these facts I have to
say that Singapore is more authoritarian with a foot in the door towards Democracy.
Singapore is a vibrant country with plenty of culture, a strong economy, and a look
towards democracy in the future. In the meantime it is still leaning more towards an
authoritarian government because of its single party control. Singapore has made some moves
to become more democratic and I fully expect that trend to continue in the future.

Works Cited
CIA World Fact Book, WEB. 02 October 2014
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, WEB. 02 October 2014
Inter-Parliamentary Union, WEB. 02 October 2014