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> Surely a de facto dictatorship like this shouldn’t be so wealthy and successful[...] It's also worth noting that the entirety of Singapore just barely excee
by avar 8y ago
> Surely a de facto dictatorship like this shouldn’t be so wealthy and successful[...]
It's also worth noting that the entirety of Singapore just barely exceeds the area enclosed by Washington DC's beltway.
Whatever their form of government, small city states are always going to be able to avoid many of the pitfalls of larger countries. There's effectively only one level of government to deal with, and the despot is always going to live down the road from you and need to use the same public services as you, so you don't get the sort of disconnect e.g. Rome or the British Empire had from its provinces or overseas holdings.
- baybal2 8y agoThe better comparison for the nation should be Luxembourg, and Andorra, not other Asian countries. > Whatever their form of government, small city states are always going to be able to avoid many of the pitfalls of larger countries. There's effectively only one level of government to deal with, and the despot is always going to live down the road from you and need to use the same public services as you, so you don't get the sort of disconnect e.g. Rome or the British Empire had from its provinces or overseas holdings. Recently, I also heard the opinion that another country that can be compared to Sing is Kazakhstan... wait? The comparison is not so ridiculous if you go through with it: ... it is not a city state, but you can say that it is a "two city state." Besides Astana, and Almaty, the nation is effectively a post-soviet wasteland. ... LKY, just as Kazakh president was a socialist and nationalist early on, and of a very radical kind. ... LKY, just as Kazakh president purged every socialist and nationalist the moment he got a nation for himself. ... aside from elites living in ghettos for the rich, the ordinary population is pressed against the wall by low median income. ... to a very big extend, the state gives just enough of handouts to the masses to prevent them from rioting. This way, both Kazakhstan and Singapore can be called a de-facto, but not de-jure socialist states. ... both countries' economies are one trick ponies, despite of decades of dramatic efforts to change that. ... both countries spend lavishly on clearing up their image abroad, but the general populace of both countries can't disagree more with their respective countries popular image. The biggest noticeable difference is of course that Singapore is cosy with the West, and Kazakhstan isn't.
- twic 8y ago> both countries' economies are one trick ponies What is Singapore's trick? Their economy looks moderately diversified to me - GDP comes 13.3% from finance, 19.2% from manufacturing, 17.6% from wholesale and retail trade, 14.8% from "Business Services", and 35% from other stuff: https://www.tablebuilder.singstat.gov.sg/publicfacing/createDataTable.action?refId=12378 https://www.tablebuilder.singstat.gov.sg/publicfacing/create...
- baybal2 8y agoThere is very little genuine manufacturing left in Singapore. Back in nineties, there was big industry for trade agencies which imported random cheap stuff, and resold it to the West after stamping things with "Made in Singapore." I assume, the big portion of manufacturing other than output of chip fabs, is the remnant from those years. Add it to that double digits of trade and services will also relate to the same activity. And a big portion of services labelled as other and business services will relate to offshore banking. And yeah, both countries run humongous sovereign funds, or better to say, both countries are ran by them.
- thirteen37 8y agoSo it is transitioning from manufacturing to offshore banking, and yet it's a one-trick pony?
- baybal2 8y agoWell, a two trick pony then...
- uranusjr 8y agoI can’t say about Kazakhstan, but anecdotally, a lot of Singaporeans I know (not terribly many) are quite satisfied with, even proud of their country, the government, and the Lee family. The activists are the minority, by a wide margin.
- jessaustin 8y agoThis sounds like an argument for smaller nations?
- ColanR 8y agoWelcome to feudalism.
- WillPostForFood 8y agoLike Singapore: Norway, Finland, and Denmark all are around a population of 5 million, are well run, and don’t appear feudal. HN knows well, scaling is hard.
- toyg 8y agoIn fact, many argue that modern globalization is better suited to smaller forms of government than the XVIII century typical Nation-State on the French model. The concept of "Europe of Cities", on the model of federal Germany, is actually pretty compelling: most citizens of, say, London, have more in common with the citizens of Milan or Prague than they share with home-county backwaters; and the instances of the British countryside are closer to the ones of French countryside than of post-industrial cities like Manchester. Having London-sized macro-regions meet at European level to coordinate might be more effective and representative than the current "deep" model. It would also neutralize a whole set of issues with regional "independence" movements: Catalunya, Scotland or the Milan hinterland would be peers in Europe, rather than subjects in Milan, London and Rome. Historically, nation-states have been mostly defined by culture, which is defined by language, which was mostly defined by communication speed, which was mostly defined by actual transportation speed. That's not an element anymore because all culture can be everywhere at any time. A new approach is required.
- rorykoehler 8y agoI've long suspected that we should aim for more city states and less bloat. Do you have any further reading on the topic that you would recommend?