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Political Culturalism, Representation and the People's Action Party of Singapore

The PAP has been attempting, particularly since the early 1990s, to establish a ‘political culturalism’ that aims to produce individuals as ‘cultural citizens’, in contrast to ‘liberal citizens’ associated with the representative politics of liberal democracies. Cultural citizenship steers participation through ethnic or communitarian channels while at the same time restricting political contestation. Through this, the PAP has reinterpreted the meaning and responsibility of being elected and redefined the structures and meaning of political representation and participation. These redefined concepts are reflected in institutions such as the Group Representation Constituency (GRC) as well as race-based self-help organizations. At stake in the production of cultural citizens is the shaping of the boundaries and meaning of politics, with important implications for which sites of participation are tolerated, supported or obstructed. Cultural citizenship mobilizes political conflict along ethnic lines excluding other forms of conflict such as class-based forms of collective representation. This essay examines the type of representation that is being articulated and how it provides an ideological basis for non-liberal political institutions that opens up pathways of participation in different spheres of everyday life, except in the arena of political contestation.