1. Introduction: In this work, we will talk about what corporatism is, as well as its relationship with ethnicity in the specific case of Sigapore, since, being a multicultural and multiethnic country, over the years there have been different environmental problems This is why these problems will be addressed, mainly since the 1980s.
2. ETHNIC MOSAIC POLITICS 1959-65
2.1. Singaporean society was portrayed from the outset, explicitly and almost exclusively,
2.2. geopolitical circumstances inhibited any development of a Chinese state
2.3. the government at the time lacked the capacity to implement any policy of assimilating the different racial, religious and language groups either into a Singaporean nation based on Chinese culture
2.4. Solution: portraying the Singapore nation as a unique 'ethnic mosaic', and the key terms used to designate this formula were those of 'multiracialism' and 'unity in diversity'.
2.4.1. It was symbolized in the adoption of four official languages, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil and English
2.4.2. The stress on the 'ethnic mosaic' character of Singapore served to promote national unity and political stability in two ways
2.4.2.1. 1. 1he English-educated PAP and governmental elite to associate themselves with, and to proclaim their admiration for, the unique richness and diversity of the Singaporean society.
2.4.2.2. 2. was translated into government policies and education pro- grammes which stressed the civic virtues of mutual tolerance and admiration between ethnic communities
2.5. The 'ethnic mosaic' approach to Singaporean national identity and political allocations was significant
2.5.1. As the PAP government remained concerned to develop its support base amongst each component ethnic group, and so long as Singapore's merger with Malaysia continued.
2.6. By the mid-1960s, however, both these circumstances had changed, and the 'ethnic mosaic' depiction of Singapore began to give way to a rather different portrayal, that of 'meritocracy'.
3. THE POLITICS OF ETHNICALLY NEUTRAL MERITOCRACY IN THE 1970s
3.1. The term 'multiracialism' has continued to be pervasive in the political discourse of Singapore
3.2. an 'ethnic mosaic' national ideology
3.2.1. It began to be used in the 1970s to describe the racial composition of the society
3.2.2. And to celebrate the virtue of interethnic tolerance in an achievement oriented society committed to economic development.
3.3. National identity was not to be based then, on any specifically Singaporean culture, but rather on 'a philosophy of national development
3.4. The articulation of this distinction was to provide an important basis for the subsequent development of corporatism.
3.4.1. Ethnicity as a legitimate source of values and identity at the level of high culture,
3.4.2. Ethnicity as a subversive political loyalty,
4. TOWARDS INCLUSIONARY CORPORATISM
4.1. Singaporean politics moved in a corporatist direction in the 1980s and early 1990s
4.2. The employment and trade union legislation of the 1960s and 1970s had embodied some clearly corporatist elements
4.3. In the overtly political realm, the corporatist tendencies emerged both in the 1982 reconstitution of the PAP to strengthen its elitist organizational structures and to define it explicitly as a 'national movement
4.4. Thus, during the 1980s, there was a general shift away from 'departicipation' and towards the governmental provision of channels for participation through institutions
4.4.1. Were created or licensed by the state, and which were within the ideological parameters of corporatist nationalism promoted by the state
5. Political loyalty
5.1. The garrison ideology which had been stressed during the 1970s has continued to be employed
5.1.1. Singaporeans are still repeatedly reminded that ethnic political loyalties constitute primordial and irrational bonds
5.1.1.1. Which are easy to ignite and which constantly threaten to explode
5.2. The large majority of Singaporeans do not regard their high level of patriotism as being in tension with their ethnic attachments.
5.2.1. therefore that those ethnic attachments no longer encompass political loyalties to race or to overseas homeland which would be antithetical to national loyalty
5.3. Distinction, between the moral imperative of national political loyalty, and the moral subversion of ethnic political loyalty, would be a central component in the effective corporatist management of ethnicity.
6. Brown, D. (1994). Ethnicity and corporatism in Singapore. In The State and Ethnic Politics in Southeast Asia (pp. 66–112). Routledge.
7. Singapore
7.1. multi-ethnic society of largely immigrant stock.
7.2. - distinctions between Buddhist, Islamic, Christian, Hindu, Sikh and other religious groups.
7.3. discussions of Singaporean politics usually take this ethnic pluralism as their starting point.
7.4. characterization of the state as being autonomous in relation to societal pressures and ethnically neutral in its national ideology.
7.5. how and why political stability and ethnic harmony have been sustained from Independence to the present day?
7.5.1. the key to this lies in the avowedly ethnically-neutral character of the state.
7.5.2. During the 1980s there was clearly a shift in governmental attitudes concerning ethnicity, involving statements and policies on ethnic issues previously considered too sensitive for public discussion.
7.5.3. the state as developing in a corporatist direction.
8. THE CORPORATIST STATE MODEL
8.1. corporatism' is contentious and ambiguous.
8.2. it directs attention towards a central issue of contemporary politics.
8.3. attempts by an avowedly autonomous state elite to organize the diverse interest associations in society so that their interests can be accommodated within the interdependent and organic national community.
8.3.1. The ideal of a harmonious, well regulated, non conflictive society
8.3.2. based on moral principles and well-defined norms
8.4. In so far as the concept has been applied to developing countries, it has been related to two main strands of thought.
8.4.1. One strand grew out of the observation that the post-colonial states were 'overdeveloped'
8.4.1.1. the bureaucratic state structures tended to be particularly large and powerful, and to appropriate to themselves a disproportionate share of state revenues.
8.4.2. The second strand developed from the study
8.4.3. of military regimes (particularly in Latin America) in which the state machinery was highly institutionalized, centralized and monopolistic
8.5. Corporatism constitutes a strategy which has been employed in states facing crises of both early and late industrialization
8.5.1. its emergence in Third World states has tended to be sparked off particularly by the need to curtail populist participation when new economic policies demand sacrifices from the emergent working class.
8.5.2. The restriction of mass participation initially enables the technocratic elite to concentrate on the administration of economic development.
8.6. distinction between several sub-types of corporatism
8.6.1. with 'state corporatism' and 'exclusionary corporatism'
8.6.1.1. at the authoritarian-state end of the scale,
8.6.2. and 'societal corporatism' and 'inclusionary corporatism'
8.6.2.1. at the end where the organic community is built on a more genuinely consensual partnership between state and society.
8.7. The corporatist characterization of the state thus implies, in the contemporary context, the state that is dominated by bureaucrats and technocrats
8.7.1. depicted as acting according to the imperatives of statehood and as comprising a professional state elite trained as legal, managerial and economic experts
8.7.1.1. - rather than as comprising a state bourgeoisie promoting their own class interests.
9. CORPORATISM AND ETHNICITY
9.1. It is quite feasible that a technocratic - bureaucratic state elite might restrict a corporatist strategy to the realm of economic tripartitism
9.1.1. 1. the development of corporatist tendencies in the culturally plural society leads inexorably to the state becoming involved in attempts to engineer ethnic consciousness.
9.1.2. 2. Just as the state might employ economic organizations as corporatist intermediaries, so might it seek to promote social and economic order by extending this strategy of control and consultation to other social groupings.
9.1.3. 3. The extension of the corporatist strategy to ethnicity thus involves the state in an attempt to structure politics around a distinction between three different facets of ethnicity
9.1.3.1. as a subversive political loyalty which undermines national loyalty,
9.1.3.2. as a cultural component for the national ideology
9.1.3.3. as a legitimate interest association.
9.2. In the case of Singapore, the corporatist tendency has extended to incorporate the ethnic dimension to such an extent that the state elites have developed a marked predisposition to depict and to organize Singaporean society along primarily ethnic lines
9.2.1. even for the discussion of economic, political and social issues which do not relate directly to the ethnic realm of linguistic, religious or racial matters.