ABSTRACT
The first two chapters have dealt with Singapore's history and how the PAP became the government, which marked a shift in the way the party operated. Until then, it could act only as a party. After it became the government, or the state (see below), it acquired all the powers of a government and was restricted only by the constitution and the law. The state by definition (see below) has claims to superiority over other bodies in a polity. Additionally, James Cotton, in comparing its relationships with other “master discourses” – with class, with society and with ethnicity – demonstrates that in each the state is the “central phenomenon.” 1
