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So, fueled by pure Dunning-Krueger from reading one and a half chapters of a book and a Le Monde article (though also bits and pieces across the internet in my search), here are my attempted answers to the homework:

• Who are the main political actors? Are they compradors, nationalists, international socialists, something else?

Singapore is essentially a one-party capitalist state. The opposition does technically exist and has a few seats, but the history of Singapore since its independence in 1965 has been rule by the People's Action Party, first led by Lee Kuan Yew, then by Goh Chok Tong who was in office from 1990 until 2004, and now Lee Hsien Loong (the son of Lee Kuan Yew, by the way), who has been Prime Minister since 2004. They are anti-communist nationalists who believe in Singaporean exceptionalism.

• What are the most salient domestic political issues; those issues that repeatedly shape elections over the last 10, 20 years. Every country has its quirks that complicate analysis - for example, Brexit in the UK.

I'm not really sure, but three factors that are at least pertinent are a) the demographics (~75% Chinese, the rest Malay and other groups) which has previously led to racial violence and sinocentrism, as well as all the foreign workers which support these citizens and yet mostly live in bad conditions and are repressed; b) absurdly high rent/housing prices, though GDP per capita is pretty decent if you ignore all those aforementioned foreign workers; and c) the fact that Singapore's land is very limited (though land reclamation from the sea is occurring) which limits new construction and such.

• What is the country's history? You don't have to go back a thousand years if that's not relevant, and I'm counting "history" as basically anything that has happened over a year ago.

Essentially there's five major periods of Singaporean history - the first is the pre-colonial period, stretching back definitely hundreds, probably thousands of years. Then there's the British colonial period, which essentially began in 1819 when Sir Stamford Raffles, which is the most British imperialist name ever, took control of the island for the British Empire. Then, the war period (Singapore was relatively unaffected by WW1, but in WW2 was occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945). Then the pre-independence period up until 1965, which seemed to have a fair amount of turmoil and desire for independence from Britain, and in 1963 they were briefly part of Malaysia before shit kinda fell apart and they became their own country in 1965. And finally, the post-independence period, which has lasted until this day.

• What factions exist, historically and currently? If there is an electoral system, what are the major parties and their demographic bases? Are there any minor parties with large amounts of influence? Independence movements? Religious groups?

Singapore uses a UK-inspired parliamentary system, with Members of Parliament. As mentioned before, the PAP has been totally dominant since independence (currently 79 seats), and the Workers' Party is the main historical opposition, and tends to skew a little left (but communists have been historically purged in Singapore such as in Operation Coldstore and Operation Spectrum), with 8 seats currently. The Progress Singapore Party is a recent addition, created in 2019, and seems pretty liberal as far as I can tell, mainly just arguing that the PAP is doing capitalism a little incorrectly; it has a grand total of 2 seats. There are also a small number of independent MPs.

• How socially progressive or conservative are they? Is there equality for different ethnic groups, or are some persecuted? Do they have LGBTQIA+ rights? Have they improved over time, or gotten worse?

Singapore has been and still seems to be relatively LGBTQIA+ friendly, with sex reassignment surgery legalised in 1973, though homosexual sex between men was technically illegal up until last year (it was de facto legal since 2007) - for women, it's always been legal. Same sex marriages are not currently recognized though.

I can't really speak on ethnic equality, but the whole "foreign worker" thing kinda makes that point anyway.

• What role do foreign powers play in the country’s politics and economy? Is there a particular country nearby or far away that is nearly inseparable from them, for good or bad reasons? Is their trade dominated by exports/imports to one place? Are they exploited, exploiters, or something in between?

75% of their exports go to countries in Asia, and a third of their exports go to China + Hong Kong - compared to 8% to the United States. Due to all the ethnic Chinese people, I get the vibe that they have good relations with China culturally, though they also have a decent relationship with the UK. Looking at Pew poll, apparently two thirds of Singaporeans had a positive view of China in 2022, but as tensions and Western propaganda ramp up I think that number will go down.

• If applicable, what is the influence of former colonial relationships on the modern economy and politics?

It feels like Singapore managed to get a relatively good end result out of its colonial period, but this is probably more to do with its strategic location on the Strait of Malacca (which also has a shitload of undersea cables going through it) than anything else. At the very least, the Singaporean elite seem to have accepted their British heritage and history, even actively liking it, and the UK has been a very popular place to send students overseas. How the rest of society feels about the UK's colonial impact, I'm not so sure.

• Is the country generally stable? Do you think there will be a coup at some point in the future, and if so, what faction might replace them?

I think the honeymoon period of the country has been over for a number of years now - in the 1990s and 2000s, the vibe was "This is a hypercompetent government with no corruption and we're the best in the world in This and That", whereas now, the cracks are showing. Nonetheless, it still feels like enough people are behind the PAP that their position is secured for the years to come.