E-Government in Singapore: strengthening political control over society

Abstract: Developing an e-government in a state has become a new trend in the world of political reform. However, e-government itself as a way of public service digitalization does not incline that political regime of the state will be democratic and inclusive. When e-government has been usually researched in the democratic setting, question marks remain of how it works in the non-democratic one. This paper tries to find out consequences e-government implementation have on the citizens’ privacy in the hybrid regime like Singapore. The used material consists of both Singapore’s laws, governmental stats and official documents, as well as outside reports and statistics provided by international organizations and think tanks. The outcome of the analysis suggests that the implementation of e-government in the non-democratic state leads to the increased capacity and cases of the unrestricted surveillance of citizens by government that includes either gathering private data, or using it against the citizens or social actors that are considered to be dangerous to the monopoly of ruling elites power.