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Article published In:
Language & Citizenship
Edited by Tommaso M. Milani
[Journal of Language and Politics 14:3] 2015
► pp. 455–478

The party’s over?

Singapore politics and the ‘new normal’

| National University of Singapore |

This paper highlights the dynamic nature of the relationship between government and society, drawing on as a case study the changing relationship between the Singapore government and the citizenry. I discuss the conditions under which the People’s Action Party is under pressure to change its style of government,. Following on from this discussion, I make two key points. One, concepts such as habitus and act (Isin 2008) have been employed to elucidate the nature of citizenship. But they are also relevant to our understanding of government.

Two, the distinction between act and habitus, at least as articulated by Isin (2008), confuses two ontologically distinct entitiies: a disposition to act, and the action itself. I suggest that this confusion arises in part from Isin’s failure to examine carefully the communicative modes of engagement between the government and the citizenry.

Keywords: global city, habitus, speech act, stance, style
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The People’s Action Party and the Politics of Citizenship
  • 3.Engaging the Citizenry Over the Years
    • 3.1From nation-state to global city
    • 3.2Crisis and response
    • 3.3Nationalism
  • 4.Into the ‘New-Normal’: The 2011 General Elections and After
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 21 August 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.14.3.07wee
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