On Authoritarianism And Progressive Democratic Reform Of Singapore

Authoritarianism is a transitional political form from traditional despotism tomodern democracy, which contains features of despotism and democracy. It is aunique political form that controls the society forcefully, and it is highly centralized. Itcombines traditional feature with modern feature in this kinds of politics. Singaporeemploys this sort of pattern to make it step into the ranks of developed countries witha very short period, and affords a good example for developing countries.This paper is based on theory of political development and authoritarianism,and it aims to discuss form of political development of Singapore through researchingformation and development and democratic reform in Singapore. This model hasrecorded glorious achievement in economic development,political stability,andsocial management and so on. It realizes its modernization stably and fast. However,at the same time,this model also has its own defects. This paper firstly analyzesrelated theory on political development and authoritarianism. It also makes theoreticalexplanation from meaning,characteristic,drive and dynamic factors inhibitive factorsof political development authoritarianism,etc. Then it concentrates on interpreting theformation,political character and developmental strategy of authoritarianism inSingapore. The factors for explaining formation of Singapore's authoritarianisminclude national and international ones. Political character contains political policythat suits one country's national conditions,market economy driven forcefully bygovernment,national-interest-first ideology,and social life under governmentalsupervision. Developmental strategy comprises highly stable political environment,proper strategy of economy development as well as gradually increased nationalawareness of Singapore. It analyzes furthermore progressive democratic reform ofSingapore authoritarianism from background of reform and ways. Last but not least,it discusses positive factors and defect of political developmental model of Singaporeauthoritarianism.This paper combines theoretical analysis with practical analysis and analyzes itprofoundly; this paper discusses the inevitability Singapore authoritarianism changesinto democracy as well as revelation for developing countries,especially for China.