Reinventing Public Governance in Singapore: Major Reform Premises, Initiatives, and Consequences

Abstract

It is widely recognized that the contemporary global trends in restructuring or reinventing public governance have been largely guided by market-driven neoliberal ethos, rationales, and policies. In general, such reinvention in governance reflects the assumption of state failure and market superiority, prescribes a diminishing role of the public sector, and recommends drastic structural and managerial reforms in public management based on business principles in the name of greater efficiency, better value for money, and higher customer choice and satisfaction (Chung 2001; Larbi 1999; Haque 1999). These recent trends of reinventing governance have significant implications not only for transforming the nature of state and its relationship with citizens and society, but also for role, structure, and orientation of the public service in almost all nations.