Policy Advocacy in a Competitive Authoritarian Regime: The Growth of Civil Society and Agenda Setting in Singapore

Singapore is marked by a very strong hegemonic state, which allows little room for independent activism to flourish. Among the various groups making up civil society, there is a clear division between those groups that collaborate with the government and those that strongly defend their independence. The former profit from their relationship with the ruling authorities not only because they are financially rewarded but also because they have a sense of being involved in the process and thus are able to exert some influence on the making of public policy. The heavy hand of the government and the divisions within civil society, however, mean that it is very difficult to distinguish between different advocacy coalitions that might influence policy change. Despite the recent moves toward liberalization, policy making remains largely the domain of the central government and planning departments. This leaves little space for external policy advocacy. Nevertheless, recent events indicate how nongovernmental groups may come together to bring an issue to the national agenda and have some impact on the policy-making process. This suggests that policy making in increasingly competitive authoritarian regimes can best be explained by an agenda-setting approach.