新加坡故事： 實用主義、儒家思想與「社群主義」？

摘要新加坡的發展一直備受世人矚目。在李光耀與人民行動黨的治理下，新加坡從被迫獨立的小國發展成為亞洲最現代化的國家之一。值得注意的是新加坡模式結合自由經濟發展與嚴密的社會政治控制，挑戰了現代化理論的假設：經濟發展有利於政治開放與民主化。本文採質性研究方法，藉由對次級文獻資料的分析，旨在針對主導新加坡獨立以來的發展之理念與論述進行脈絡分析，試圖探究本論文之研究問題：「新加坡統治論述於1980年代所出現的從強調實用主義轉為強調儒家價值的「文化轉向」是政治論述的延續抑或是真的轉而以儒家思想為其論述內涵？」本研究依人民行動黨執政論述理論內涵出現轉變的時間點提出三個歷史分期，深入分析論述轉變的因素，試圖回答前述研究問題。研究結果發現，行動黨的長期威權統治除了其優秀施政成果外，亦有賴於行動黨在新加坡獨立後致力建構的意識形態，亦即本論文探究之「新加坡故事」；這套統治論述包含了生存危機、實用主義、任人唯賢與多元文化。1980年代之後，隨著該國政治、社會與國際環境的變遷，行動黨政府正當性受到挑戰，李光耀為首之政治菁英調整新加坡故事的內涵，提出以儒家文化為基礎的特殊主義並建構「亞洲價值」概念，強調自由主義式民主不適用於亞洲國家，學者如蔡明發則以社群主義詮釋前述統治論述內涵。本文研究認為李光耀所主張之特殊主義與社群主義，就理論倡議之目的、出現的脈絡與其實踐上，皆迥異於源於西方自由主義民主社會的社群主義。

關鍵字

新加坡；實用主義；儒家價值；社群主義

並列摘要

Abstract The postcolonial development of Singapore has attracted the attention of the world. Under the rule of Lee Kuan Yew and People’s Action Party (here after PAP), Singapore has become one of the most modernized country in Asia from a small nation that was forced to be independent from Malaya. Singaporean model of development is characterized by its combination of free economy and tight sociopolitical control, which poses challenge to the standard explanation of modernization theory: economic development will bring about political liberalization and democratization. Through analyzing the secondary data, this thesis aims to provide a contextual analysis of the political discourses that have been dominant in shaping the story of Singapore since its independence in 1965. The research question that this study is intended to answer is whether the ‘cultural turn’ from pragmatism to cultural particularism with Confucianism as its core is the continuity of Lee’s pragmatism or a genuine change. It is found in this study that apart from overall remarkable performance, ideology aiming to justify the leadership and authoritarian rule of the party- the ‘Singapore Story’- also contributes to the continuous rule of the PAP. The elements of the Story include survival crisis, pragmatism, cultural pluralism, meritocracy. Since the challenge to its legitimacy emerging in 1980s as the result of the changes in the domestic and external environments, political elites led by Lee turned to cultural particularism based on Confucianism and constructed the notion of ‘Asian Value,’ emphasizing the incompatibility of Western literal democracy in the context of Asian countries. Scholars such as Chua Beng Huat regard the cultural particularistic discourse of Asia Value as influenced by ‘communitarianism’. None the less, it is argued in this thesis that cultural particularism and ‘communitarianism’ proposed by Lee and the PAP is vastly different from the theory of communitarianism that emerges originally in the context of western liberal democratic societies, in terms of the purpose of proposing the theory, the context of its emergence and its practice.