Syracuse University SURFACE Maxwell School – Distinction Theses Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public (Undergraduate) Affairs Spring 2014 The Singapore Opposition: “Credibility” – The Primary Impediment to Coalition Building Brian Steinberg
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/distinction Part of the Comparative Politics Commons, and the International Relations Commons Recommended Citation Steinberg, Brian, "The Singapore Opposition: “Credibility” – The Primary Impediment to Coalition Building" (2014). Maxwell School – Distinction Theses (Undergraduate). 4. https://surface.syr.edu/distinction/4 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maxwell School – Distinction Theses (Undergraduate) by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. 1 The Singapore Opposition: “Credibility” – The Primary Impediment to Coalition Building A Capstone Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Renée Crown University Honors Program at Syracuse University Brian Steinberg Candidate for B.A. Degree and Renée Crown University Honors May 2014 Honors Capstone Project in Political Science Capstone Project Advisor: _______________________ Professor Jonathan Hanson Capstone Project Reader: _______________________ Professor Mathew Cleary Honors Director: _______________________ Stephen Kuusisto, Director Date: 5/1/2014 Abstract This thesis studies opposition party behavior in competitive authoritarian regimes using the Singapore 2011 general election as a case study. The study asks, what is the primary reason Worker’s Party, the strongest opposition party in Singapore, did not pursue the formation of a pre-electoral coalition? I analyzed the pre-existing theories and conducted fieldwork, interviewing opposition party leaders, academics and activists, to ascertain a direct impediment and not just a background condition to coalition building.