Political Legitimacy and Housing: Singapore's Stakeholder Society

Chua Beng-Huat accounts for the success of public housing and draws out lessons for other nations. Housing in Singapore, he explains, is seen neither as a consumer good --as in the US--nor as a social right--as in the social democracies of Europe. He goes on to look at the ways in which Singapore's planners have dealt with the problems of creating communities in a modern urban environment and demonstrates how this success has strengthened the legitimacy of the ruling elite.