Hegemonic authoritarianism and singapore: Economics, ideology and the asian economic crisis

Abstract

This essay critically evaluates contemporary theories of authoritarianism and, through an examination of one of the most outstandingly stubborn cases of authoritarianism — that of Singapore — suggests a new approach for understanding authoritarianism based on Gramsci's theory of hegemony. This theory focuses directly on issues of legitimacy and popular perception and offers valuable insights into phenomena (e.g., “popular dictatorship,” “soft authoritarianism” and “fascism”) that would otherwise be dismissed as exceptions to the rule. Additionally, while being sensitive to historical contingency, hegemony theory does not lapse into an “it depends” mode but presses on to rigorously clarify the precise relationship between material conditions and ideology. Additionally, unlike dominant theories that categorise world regimes into dichotomised and moralised categories of democracies and dictatorships, Gramsci's theory offers us a less epistemologically biased paradigm that can be utilised equally to understand and criticise authoritarian tendencies wherever they are found.

Keywords :

• authoritarianism
• economics
• Gramsci
• hegemony
• ideology
• Peoples Action Party
• Singapore