The Construction Of National Identity In The Dominant Party System

Singapore is a state of the dominant party system,as the long-run ruling party,the way People's Action Party in Singapore to implement was called"authoritarian”.Under the rule of the People's Action Party,the economy has been developed rapidly,but the political system is relatively closed and its political participation was limited to very few elite bureaucrats.Singapore citizens were never been encouraged to participate in political activities.But in such a young country with limited political participation,its citizens have a high degree of national identity.My paper was based on this fact,and I tried to explain why Singapore or the ruling government of PAP can enjoy a high level of national identity.Furthermore,as a case study,I want to discuss the role the dominant system can play when the system begins the construction of the national identity.The full text can be divided into three parts,namely introduction,text and conclusion.The introduction part introduces the origin of the paper,the significance and some research methods.And have a brief look back to previous researches about the Singapore system and national identity.At last I try to summarize the values and deficiency of the previous researches.The whole text can be briefly divided into four chapters.In the first chapter,I tried to clear the core concepts of the article before entering into the discussion of national identity in Singapore,which is mainly composed of three concepts:national identity,authoritarianism and the dominant party system.The second,third and fourth section composed tried to answer the first question:what's the reason for Singapore's relatively high national identity?.This paper argues that,in such a system with very limited political participation in Singapore,the reason why PAP government can enjoy a high level of national identity mainly lies in seizing the opportunity.The ruling party has issued a series of important policies to unite Singaporeans,such as multi-inclusive national policy and combined-houses policy;the strategy to mobilize the people to develop economy under the crisis and the language policy of seeking common ground while reserving differences.The second chapter is the PAP's shaping national identity control strategy,which is based on the economic,national,language and other policies.At another level,strengthen the construction of national identity.These regulatory policies,such as repression of the media and dissidents,seek deeper cultural identity based on Confucian culture.This chapter further answers the question,and the PAP shows a strong posture in constructing the national identity.The third chapter answers the second question of this article.Under the strong role of PAP,what challenges and crises does the construction of its national identity face?The fourth part attempts to summarize the proposed in the case of Singapore party system based on the shaping of national identity,as the more common sense of the dominant political party system in the country in the construction of national identity and the feasible path and potential crisis.This article holds that,in the construction of the party leading country,the ruling party should seize the opportunity.In addition,we should take full advantages of the centralization of power in this system and play a more effective role in policy implementation.However,the national identity based on performance still has potential crisis.For example,the economic development has brought about the improvement of people's living standards,but also brought about the indifference of Singaporeans and the loss of talented people.People are beginning to resent the official discourse,and younger generations who are being hit by the Internet are demanding extensive political participations.And as the ruling party,PAP must effectively respond to national aspirations,and further open up political participation in order to win more trusts.Last part is a conclusion.Here I briefly summarize the whole paper.In my opinon,PAP played an important role in the construction of Singapore's national identity.However,in the long run,the dominant political party system is a transitional system,if the governor or the ruling party wants to have a broader range of national identity,it is a must to open up the political system and to encourage the citizens'political participation.