Abstract
This paper discusses how although Singapore cannot necessarily be considered as a strict democracy in the Westernised conception of the term, it results however from an authoritarian conception of how the state should be administered to achieve social and economic progress and multi-ethnic cohesion. It looks at how social cohesion had to be ensured so that economic progress could be achieved and how therefore the People's Action Party has constantly been putting the emphasis on agglomerating the widest range of interests, even though this has meant the establishment of a "limited democracy".

Outline:
The Main Objectives For a Pragmatic PAP: Economic Success Combined With Social Harmony and Well-Being
An 'Asian' Idea of the State?: Confucianism, Shared Values and Communitarianism
Acceptation of the Regime by the Population?
The Difficulties of Goh Chok Tong
The PAP's Willingness to Maintain Itself as the 'National' Party
What is to be Expected From a Mutating Society?
Conclusion

From the Paper
"Goh Chok Tong succeeded Lee Kuan Yew as Prime Minister of Singapore in 1990, but Yew became Senior Minister and thus occupied the position of advisor to the Prime Minister. This succession resembles a transition between the first and the second generation of leaders in the PAP, a transition that was supposed to lead to more openness of the political regime. Indeed, Lee Kuan Yew and his partisans had recognised a rising aspiration for more popular participation in the ruling of the country. The emphasis was put on the necessity of maintaining continuity and not to produce a rupture with the past. In the 1991 parliamentary elections, the PAP obtained a 'limited' performance in comparison with what it had achieved in the past: the party lost four seats, the parliament being composed of 83 seats. "

Tags:asian, cohesion, communitarism, ethnic, liberalism, multi, national, rights