| The emergence of ethnic groups, the human communities, is the inevitable product of social development. Even if different ethnic groups have been sheltered by the unitary political community, due to the incomplete ablation of ethnic heterogeneity, the competition of interests, the bargaining of power and the wrestle of cultures between ethnic groups and states will become the inevitable normal existence in the multi-ethnic countries. How to reduce or even avoid the tension between ethnic groups and state with significant heterogeneity and to promote their adjustment and tolerance in a peaceful manner are the problems which have existed since the birth of human society and continued to exist until nowadays with the development of human society. All the countries are seeking an effective approach to handle the ethnic relationships and maintain the social stability as well as regional and global peace and security, hoping that the "clash of civilizations" will not be staged factually.In the country with diverse ethnic groups, the diversity of the ethnic community and the uniqueness of the national political community has always been a widespread and irreversible social reality. As the same multi-ethnic society, why are there serious ethnic conflicts and social unrest in some countries while in other countries the ethnic relationships are very harmonious, the politics steady and the economic prosperous? What is the root of the conflicts and what are the causes of the harmony? For these multi-ethnic societies, is there any universal ethnic governance model to solve the ethnic issues? There are many factors that affect social stability, but for a multi-ethnic country, the influence of ethnic politics on political stability is obvious.The formation of multi-ethnic society is the process of binging different ethnic groups into a single political community and constructing the same citizenship. However, various ethnic groups have different identity to their nation and the inter-ethnic heterogeneity is quite obvious, which give birth to the dual tension between ethnic groups and their state. What the multi-ethnic states face is how to solve "ethnic diversity" within the framework of the "political unity", control and remove the dual tension, shape ethnic groups’ loyalty to their country and transform the ethnic identity into national identity. To settle this issue, it is essential to explore profoundly and systematically the typical ethnic governance mode of multi-ethnic countries and generalize the universality of the governance model of the multi-ethnic countries from the’distinctiveness of typical countries. Based on the above, this thesis selects Singapore’s ethnic governance and political stability as a research model.Since its founding in1965, an important issue at the national governance level of Singapore is how to handle its ethnic relationships. Although a small country, Singapore has been filled with the "civilization fault lines" which Huntington proposed in his "clash of civilizations". According to the status of the domestic ethnic politics after the independence of the nation, the ruling People’s Action Party developed the equal multi-ethnic policies and improved the supporting systems with other specific measures to ease ethnic relationships and resolve ethnic contradictions. Therefore, Singapore has become a model of social development with diverse ethnic groups in Southeast Asia. Singapore’s success has sparked the concerns and thinking about its model of development in the academic field. Most scholars agree that Singapore has made brilliant achievements in ethnic governance and political stability and give a reference to the similar multi-ethnic society to deal with similar issues.Structural Dual tension between ethnic groups and the state is a chronic disease has long been plaguing the multi-ethnic country’s political stability and social security. Although different countries have quite different ethnic relations and policies and the success of one country’s ethnic policy may not be suitable for the others, exploring the deep-seated reasons for the success can help us to gain useful insights. As a typical representative of harmonious ethnic relationships and stable society, Singapore is very worthy of study. On the one hand, we can explore the intrinsic relationship between ethnic politics and its political and social development; on the other hand, we can summarize the important experience and existing problems of ethnic governance and social development in Singapore, thus providing valuable references for us, another multi-ethnic country, to handle our ethnic relationships as well as for a better perception of the ethnic politics in Singapore and Southeast Asia.This thesis tries to place the ethnic governance and nation building in an analytical framework so as to study the ethnic governance model of Singapore, a typical representative one with multi-ethnic groups, and make an in-depth analysis of how the country has settled the binary tension between ethnic groups and state and thus achieved ethnic harmony and common prosperity, economic development and prosperity as well as national unity and political stability. Within this framework, the ethnic governance and political stability form two variables with causal relationship, the development of ethnic governance and the achievement of political stability is a dynamic process of nation building on the basis of relieving the dual tension between the ethnic groups and the state which will undergo from ethnic identity to national citizenship, from ethnic interests to national interests and from ethnic norms to national norms.Based on the analysis above, this thesis put forward the following basic hypotheses: First, in the multi-ethnic country, ethnic issue is a significant variable that affect the country’s political development and stability, while the dual tension between ethnic groups and the state is the basic cause of ethnic conflicts and political turmoil in a country. The country’s political stability depends largely on the development of the relationship between ethnic groups and the state. Second, the tension between ethnic groups and their state is mainly reflected in three aspects, that is, the identity tension, the interests tension and the norms tension. Settlement of the dual tension between ethnic groups and the state can contribute to political stability of a country, and thus construct a causal variable relationship between the ethnic-state relations and political stability of the country. Third, the ethnic governance mode of Singapore has effectively solved the dual tension between ethnic groups and the state and maintained the country’s political stability. Thereby Singapore becomes a model in governing a multi-ethnic country.Overall, the Singapore government put the policy of ethnic equality as the basis of inter-ethnic integration and nation-building in the governance process, and to weaken the political overtones gradually by the multi-level governance of ethnic relations. Then by the multi-level governance which act on three dimensions of interest, norm and identity, and three levels of nation, ethnicity and community to resolve the structural tension between the ethnic groups or the ethnic groups and the nation, and then achieve the ethnic harmony and social stability in Singapore. In summary, the ethnic governance of Singapore has presented the following characteristics:pluralistic coexistence is the key tone, multi-level governance is the basic path, pragmatism is specific direction, harmony and stability is the ultimate goal, balanced development is the key point, and the state dominated is the fundamental guarantee. |
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