Goldilocks’ Purgatory: The Public Transcript of Performative Governance in Singapore

This article introduces a novel concept—Goldilocks’ Purgatory—to explain how the Singaporean state rhetorically communicates to itself, and to internal and external audiences, of the logic and correctness of its political and policy decisions. By framing every decision as a carefully deliberated moderate choice that balances between two extreme and unsavoury options, state actors convince themselves and their audiences that their decisions are legitimate, justifiable, optimal, and worthy of support. This transcript is socially rooted in a civil service that analyzes public policy via basic macroeconomic models of dichotomized trade-offs, politically rooted in the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) continued electoral success and political dominance, and economically rooted in neoliberal global capitalism that prizes regulatory conservatism. This article further specifies how to empirically identify and measure Goldilocks’ Purgatory, and illustrates its expression over time through an analysis of public pronouncements on Singapore’s most contentious public policies—those related to immigration and foreign workers. Ultimately, Goldilocks’ Purgatory explains why criticisms of Singapore politics and public policy are neutered and minimal, and why the country’s electoral politics is so valence-focused and slow-moving.