An alternative route towards socialization of democracy in Asia: review of Liberalism Disavowed: Communitarianism and State Capitalism in Singapore by Chua Beng Huat
CHO Hee-Yeon, JANG Hun-Gyo
ABSTRACT The contribution of Chua’s Liberalism Disavowed is very large in that it shows how the hegemony of the PAP is working and resisting liberalism, especially in the everyday world of Singaporeans. It re-interprets the origin of public support for the PAP by focusing on its embedded social democratic origin. However, we differ with Chua because we think that the PAP interpreted liberalism very narrowly and rejected it. The strong state, which overwhelms civil society, emerged, interpreting democracy centered on outputs such as stability of economy or higher standard of people’s livelihood rather than inputs such as civic participation or interaction of diverse civil society actors, and openness of the state bureaucracy to civil society. Singapore has sacrificed freedom for political unity. We derive our opinion from of the need to integrate democracy and the social and co-evolution of freedom and equality. We believe that alternative democratic models should be based on the socialization, rather than the nationalization of politics.
KEYWORDS: Output-oriented democracy; democratic inputs; denial of liberalism; strong state; socialization of politics
Notes on Contributors
Cho Hee-Yeon is currently the education governor of Seoul Education office, and a former professor of Sungkonghoe University.
Jang Hun-Gyo is a research professor of Research Center on the Commons and Sustainable Society at Jeju National University.