ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to understand the way in which economic growth, society, and politics have influenced and been shaped by the People's Action Party energetic and intrusive developmental planning. The people of Singapore, like their counterparts in South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, have enjoyed dramatic economic gains. Insofar as Singapore's modern history defines possible upper limits to the scope and efficacy of national socio-economic planning, Singapore presents a unique and important case study of developmental state intervention. Singapore's stern and puritanical regime of Confucian developmental paternalism thus combines strict political and moral regulation, state-led economic growth, and provision for social and economic welfare. Statutory boards, mandated to implement socio-economic development plans formulated within planning units of the ministries of finance and trade and industry, have provided the foundation for state-led industrialization. The government's restructuring efforts resulted in moderate changes in industrial structure from the mid-1970's onward.
