The impact of the “Singapore model” on China shows that learning
by nondemocratic states is not necessarily a short-term “modular”
phenomenon that is largely reactive in character, but can be long-term
and highly institutionalized. Singapore’s leaders have carefully codified
their national model and taught it to thousands of eager Chinese government
officials who have visited the city-state to learn its secrets. This
makes the “Singapore model” the opposite of what is usually expected
with regard to “political learning”: Instead of a major power using its
clout to diffuse its own regime form, a small and relatively insignificant
country is teaching its governance approach to the “pupils” (government
officials) of a major power through carefully designed courses,
official and unofficial publications, direct government advice, and an
industrial park set up in China. In this way, Singapore actively promotes
its own model of economic growth with political stability as a “counterhegemonic”
alternative to the supposed liberal-democratic consensus.