Shifting Strategies of Political Dominance in Singapore: Pastoral Welfarism, Grassroots Management and the Emergence of the Low Wage Worker.

Abstract

Ruling Singapore since Independence in 1965, the Peoplea??s Action Party (PAP) has enjoyed uninterrupted political dominance for the last forty years. Singaporea??s economic transformation over the years has been accompanied by structural changes and greater awareness of relative poverty. As Singapore continues with economic restructuring, a small but growing section of the population will experience this in terms of tangible material deprivation. In order to maintain political dominance in the changing economic and socio-political environment, I hypothesize that we are currently seeing a discursive shift to pastoral welfarism and increased grassroots emphasis. Using a Foucauldian approach, increasing decentralization of welfare administration to grassroots organizations is not seen as a means to control less, but to control better. The use of grassroots organizations is a new form of fine-tuned control, a reorganization of control conduits that will delve deep into the social body.