Managed Crisis : Legitimacy and the National Threat in Singapore

ISBN-13: 9783639118827 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 88 str.

Stephan Ortmann

Opis

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11,2001, the United States government has frequentlyrelied on the terrorist threat to justifyrestrictions on personal liberties. This demonstratesthat a threat to the state can legitimizeauthoritarian measures. In the extreme, the nationalthreat can even enable the ruling elite to completelyhollow out a state's democratic institutions as hasbeen the case in Singapore. This book asserts thatSingapore's rulers have consciously used the nationalthreat to legitimize their authoritarian rule. On theone hand, they have stressed the variegated dangersto Singapore's very survival but on the other handthey have also sought to demonstrate their capabilityof managing each of these threats. At the time ofindependence, the Communist threat and the threat ofrace riots dominated the agenda. This was closelylinked to the threat that the city-state's neighbors,Indonesia and Malaysia, posed to the security of thenation. Singapore's rulers have also emphasized theeconomic threat that could easily destroy the tinystate. In recent years, Singapore has also stressedthe dangers of terrorism and communicable diseasessuch as SARS.

O autorze

is Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics at
the FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany.