Pandemic, politics and pandemonium: political capacity and Singapore’s response to the COVID-19 crisis

Abstract

Singapore’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has largely been seen as timely and effective, with border lock-downs and contact tracing efforts by city-state’s policymakers serving to slow down the spread of the virus. Yet despite such efforts, there have been instances of panic and confusion among the Singaporean citizenry. These include “panic buying” of essential household items as well as the spread of fake news. In this article, I will discuss the Singapore government’s efforts to address and minimize such behavior. I argue that the Singapore government’s ability to maintain relative social stability is driven by its high level of political capacity. Two forms of political capacity are particularly relevant: coercive political capacity and legitimation capacity. In focusing on political capacity, this paper seeks to delineate the political systemic drivers of Singapore’s efforts to manage the Covid-19 crisis.