當競爭性威權體制遇上多元文化主義：星式英語（Singlish）的文化政治

本文透過紀錄與研究星式英語的文化政治變遷，並藉Levitsky及Way所提的競爭性威權體制理論，檢視宣稱奉行多元文化主義的新加坡，之所以在近年來有鬆綁語言政策跡象的因素，及其當前的威權政體類型為何。透由文獻分析與次級資料分析法，嘗試探究作為新加坡多元文化背景縮影的星式英語，何以受到新加坡政府之排拒及其程度如何，並將新加坡置於競爭性威權體制的框架下論述其文化政策轉變之原因。本文主張，當新加坡從威權體制開始轉向為競爭性威權體制的同時，為了與社會中潛在反對者進行結盟，新加坡政府發現不僅能在電影中感受到新加坡人對於星式英語的執著，更因為網路的興盛，而覺察新加坡社會中存在多數新加坡人仍保持對星式英語的熱情，故透過文化性與認同性政策的作用，催化星式英語的文化政治轉變，作為收編社會力量的一種用途。另一方面，星式英語更因為網路的開放使用而無所不在。從而，新加坡政府此一收編社會力量的作為背後，更多的是無力面對。政府與人民之間的安危與共，即具體展現在星式英語的文化政治變遷之中。

關鍵字

星式英語；競爭性威權體制；多元文化主義；收編；文化政治

並列摘要

This thesis argues the Singapore regime has turned to be competitive authoritarian by examining its language policy. For the sake of recording and analyzing the cultural politics of Singlish, the author adopts the documentary and secondary analysis to attempt to answer: as an epitome of the multiculture in Singapore, why and how the Singapore government suppressed Singlish. Besides, this study shows the cause of language policy shifted over the last few years while putting Singapore under the framework of competitive authoritarianism. The conclusion discusses when Singapore shifts to a competitive authoritarian regime from an authoritarian regime, the Singapore government perceived that the Singaporeans persisted in using Singlish through some approaches, such as the films and the Internet. Therefore, it made the transformation of the cultural and identity policy in order to ally with the potential opponents as the purpose of the co-option. However, Singlish has become one of the most popular topics in the Internet. The change of the cultural politics of Singlish shows the link between the government and the people.