New modes of political participation and Singapore's nominated members of parliament

Rodan, G. (2009) New modes of political participation and Singapore's nominated members of parliament. Government and Opposition, 44 (4). pp. 438-462.

Abstract

Despite growing recognition that authoritarianism can be far more durable than transition theorists previously expected, transition theory assumptions continue to constrain attempts to understand authoritarian regimes. In particular, alternative avenues of political participation to opposition political parties and electoral contests are under examined. Singapore's authoritarian regime involves a range of such innovative institutional and ideological initiatives, one of the most significant being the Nominated Members of Parliament scheme. This promotes notions of representation different from democratic parliamentary representation that are not without appeal to targeted, emerging social forces. Singapore's political economy dynamics contribute to this responsiveness by obstructing independent power bases.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Murdoch Affiliation:	Asia Research Centre
Publisher:	Blackwell
Copyright:	© The Author 2009. Journal compilation © 2009 Government and Opposition Ltd
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/1118

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