Researching On The Modernization Of Singapore From The Angle Of Legal Process

Singapore is a young immigrant country with many different cultures and ethnic groups. It obtained self-government in 1959. On August 9, 1965, Singapore broke away from Malaysia States and declared independence. In order to survive and develop, Singapore established a complete legal system. It has achieved great economic and social progress by 2001.Currently, the academic circles carry out a lot of study in Singapore's economy and politics, focusing their attention mainly on its economic development, modernization issues, and the establishment of a harmonious society, authoritarian politics, People's Action Party and the anti-corruption. Whereas, few efforts were exerted in the study of the impact and effect of legal process on social development.The mandatory and violent nature of law maintains social stability. They are the last barrier to consolidate the rule of the government. I made an effort from the legal process angle to discuss the course of Singapore's modernization so that I can get a more comprehensive understanding of it.This article is made up of there parts: introduction, body and conclusions The introduction states the purpose and significance of the topic, gives a brief review of the current research the academic circles have made about Singapore and makes a simple introduction of the topic ranges and use of literature.The body of the article is divided into four chapters. Chapter I focuses on Singapore's colonial-era law, the independence movement and the formation of authoritarian politics. Chapter II discusses the evolution of Singapore's political system, the improvement of the legal system, the legislation to suppress the opposition party by the People's Action Party as well as the impact of such legislation on the elections. Chapter III states how authoritarian politics is legalized in the form of democracy and the relationship between the reigning type of the People's Action Party and its judicial power. Chapter IV discusses the need for the establishment of national ideology in Singapore, the democratic reform of a new generation of leaders and the trend of globalization.The conclusions briefly integrate and summarize the main ideas. They also summarize the features of the impacts that the legal process has on the modernization of Singapore:First, due to 140 years of British colonial rule and the formation of the legal system, a strong post-independence Lee Kuan Yew leadership, rule of law becomes the basic form of management in Singapore society. People's Action Party established authoritarian rule and laid the foundation of its legal system by suppressing its political opponents.Second, in the early days of its independence, the People's Action Party occupied all the seats in parliament. Thus a clean and efficient government was established by taking advantage of a series of laws and measures, and in turn great economic achievements were obtained. Authoritarian rule was legalized and strengthened in the form of democracy.Third, although the targeted legislation leaves the opposition a very limited space, social and economic development has given the opposition party a great chance of survival. The opposition party imposes ever increasing large pressure on the People's Action Party with the grow-up of a new generation. As a result, the People's Action Party had to change to adapt to a new generation of voters.Fourth, in order to extend the rule of People's Action Party as far as possible. From the 1980s Confucian values was greatly introduced in Singapore, and was established as the national ideology in order to ease the world wave of democratization and globalization on the social impact.