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Constructing Singapore Elitism, Ethnicity and the Nation-Building Project by Michael D. Barr & Zlatko Skrbi

• A critical study of the politics of ethnicity and elitism in Singapore.
• Looks inside the supposedly 'meritocratic' system that produces Singapore's political and administrative elite.
• Examines the Singapore education system from nursery and kindergarten though to university.

Constructing Singapore studies Singaporean nation-building by focusing on two processes: elite formation and elite selection. It gives primary attention to the role that ethno-racial ascription plays in these processes, but also considers the input of personal connections, personal power, class and gender. It is a study of the progress of Singapore's state-sponsored nation-building project to its current state whereby a Singaporean version of Chinese ethno-nationalism has overwhelmed the discourse on national and Singaporean identity. Based upon archival research and formal interviews, this study unpacks the culture of elite governance in Lee Hsien Loong's Singapore today.

Published by NIAS Press, NIAS Democracy in Asia Series # 11
March 2008, 320 pp., illustrated
ISBN 978 87 7694 028 7, hardback, £50.00
ISBN 978 87 7694 029 4, paperback, £16.99