Annotated Bibliography

Annotated bibliography

Emmerson, DK 1995, ‘Singapore and the “Asian Values” Debate’, Journal of Democracy, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 95-105.

Beginning his article with an anecdote, Emmerson, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, makes his point clear that the idea of Asian values as opposed to democracy is questionable, and that the dynamics of people’s opinions is a critical aspect of the Asian values debate, particularly in Singapore. Later discussing the clashes on Western’s and Singapore’s viewpoints towards Asian values, which he himself labels as “ironies”, Emmerson disregards Asian values as a concrete set of criteria inherently belong to Asia, arguing that the legitimated Asian values are mere constructions by most Asians as a way to define their future, and that democracy is a flexible concept. Emmerson’s stance towards the matter is indeed relevant to my discourse on Asian values in Singapore since it offers an alternative view to the common orientalistic attitude towards Asian values as a natural explanation for anything non-Western from Singapore’s economic miracle to its idiosyncrasies. The intended audience of the article therefore might be university students or scholars in Asian studies or general social science with certain knowledge on the subject matter. His view contrasts with Neher’s in the article referenced below.

Neher, CD 1994, ‘Asian style democracy’, Asian survey, vol. 34, no. 11, pp. 949-961.

Neher, Professor of Northern Illinois University, explores different demonstrations of the concept Asian style democracy in this article and contends that there is in fact an “Asian democracy” as opposed to “Western liberal democracy”. Building his argument around the notion of patron-client tie in Asia, he further identifies three interdependent factors that have determined Asian style democracy, namely personalism – the emphasis on personal leaders, authority – the respect for those in power as part of Confucian teachings, and...