ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Singapore. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Singapore. Singapore's worst economic recession in more than three decades didn't stop the ruling People's Action Party from routing the opposition in the November 2001 parliamentary elections. Singapore's economy was hit hard in 2001 as recessions in the United States, Japan, and other key trading partners reduced demand for the city-state's computer chips and other electronics exports. The government uses civil defamation laws, strict electoral rules, curbs on civil liberties, patronage, and its influence over Singapore's media to undermine the opposition's prospects in elections.
