Embodying society's best: Hegel and the Singapore state

The Singapore state has been described as a “patriarchal state” and a “hegemonic state,” among others. The sheer variety of theoretical models applied by different scholars reflect two contradictory truths about the Singapore state — firstly, it is a sophisticated and complex entity that continues to evade fixed characterisation, and yet, secondly, its concentration of power looms steadily across all state-society relations, confirming the basic premise of these models, that is, the sheer efficacy of state institutions and apparatuses in legitimising and fulfilling ruling class interests. This article problematises specific models by excavating contrary examples of civil society activism and relations with the state in order to demonstrate the descriptive limits of these models. This article goes on to argue that the Hegelian concept of the state continues to be of particular relevance to the Singapore condition in the way the People's Action Party understands and legitimises itself, and its discursive positioning and prescribed role of civil society in Singapore.