Governance and Bureaucracy in Singapore, contemporary reform and implications

ABSTRACT. In recent decades, there have been substantial reforms in governance and administration based on neoliberal assumptions, market-driven policies, and neo-managerial principles. These contemporary reforms aimed at reinventing government and restructuring the state began in a few advanced capitalist nations, and gradually became a global model affecting countries around the world, including the interventionist developmental states in Asia. This article examines the case of Singapore in terms of the recent trends of reform in its public governance and explores the major local and global factors shaping this reform agenda. It also briefly considers the implications of these changes for the state, bureaucracy, and people in Singapore