Liberalism Disavowed

In Liberalism Disavowed, Beng Huat Chua examines the rejection of Western-style liberalism in Singapore since the nation's expulsion from Malaysia and formal independence as a republic in 1965.

Beng Huat Chua holds the Provost Chair in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore and directs the Cultural Studies in Asia program at the NUS Asia Research Institute. He is the author of Structure, Audience and Soft Power in East Asian Pop Culture, Life Is Not Complete without Shopping: Consumption Culture in Singapore, Political Legitimacy and Housing: Singapore’s Stakeholder Society, and Communitarian Ideology and Democracy in Singapore.

"Liberalism Disavowed is an important book. It's the best discussion of the history and significance of Singapore’s distinctive political economy. Beng Huat Chua’s argument is theoretically rich, well supported with ample sources, and benefits from an insider’s perspective. He persuasively argues that the People’s Action Party has maintained, even reinforced, its left social democratic orientation over the past fifty years, in contrast to the mainstream view that it has abandoned its socialist roots in its quest for capitalist success in a globalized world."