ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author takes a look at what pragmatism means in the practical, everyday context of Singapore politics and administration, before trying to draw all the threads together and coming up with a set of unifying principles that describe and define Singapore pragmatism, as distinct from other countries’ approaches. Similarly, Goh’s ‘fact-based’ pragmatism can be seen in his decision to experiment with ‘export-oriented growth’ when the rest of the developing world favoured import-substitution. Goh surveyed the economic development models of the world and was not convinced that import-substitution model would work for Singapore as our domestic market was too small’. During policy formulation, Singapore’s ideology of pragmatism led it to favour policy hybrids, and thus innovation. The solution selected for a particular problem was often not a part of one or another theoretical or ideological system, but a hybrid.
