The ‘strongest’ party

If anyone looking for an example of a strong party, Singapore’s PAP may be the answer. The People’s Action Party was established in 1957, two years before independence, and since 1959 it has been reigning the city-state uncontested. The key to understand why it has been very strong, perhaps, the strongest party in Southeast Asia, is its merging with the state. Hence, a party state (Rodan, 2004). Mass is depoliticized, bureacracy is kept isolated from any interests, and politics thus is the domain of few elites – the PAP elites. If PAP were turned down, Singapore might follow.

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