ABSTRACT
This study set out to examine the nature and significance of pressures for improved information flows in Singapore and Malaysia – countries that experienced sustained economic growth for decades under authoritarian rule. It included consideration of whether functional economic imperatives and technological developments might be shaping to erode the viability of what have been two of the most effective systems of authoritarian information controls anywhere in the world. The answer obviously would have wider implications, both for our understanding of emerging market systems and their institutional preconditions, and of the prospects and forms of authoritarian regimes within and beyond the region.
