WE, THE PEOPLE OF SINGAPORE: Understanding Market Citizenship and its Implications

Abstract

Citizenship practice in Singapore had shifted from a model that emphasized civic citizenship to one which increasingly privileged market citizenship as the PAP-state attempts to cope with the changing demands of the global market and to preserve its political legitimacy. To successfully restructure its economy, the citizen needed to be constituted in a manner that was desired by the market. Thus, a practice of market citizenship framed within a civic republican understanding of the citizen as a bearer of responsibilities was instituted, with citizenship duty defined in terms of active participation in the market and economic contribution. However, the state could not govern solely on market citizenship as the citizen was also expected to fulfill non-market obligations. Hence some form of civic citizenship must be encouraged to persuade citizens to fulfill their non-market obligations and mitigate the negative effects of market citizenship without affecting its political dominance.