Abstract

The Internet creates opportunities for its users to pressure for liberal and democratic political change in authoritarian regimes, while also providing opportunities for authoritarian regimes to maintain political hegemony. Utilizing a framework by Yongnian Zheng and Guoguang Wu (2005) political change can occur along three dimensions. First, uses of the Internet free information from centralized control and can thereby weaken state control of the information environment. Second, Internet technologies allow their users to develop autonomous online public space in which they can interact, debate political issues, and organize and mobilize citizens for political purposes marginalized or banned offline. Third, Internet technologies allow Internet users to engage in collective actions against authoritarian regimes. Thus Internet use can create a process of contentious politics in which state-society relations are renegotiated through interactions between state and societal actors. Marginalized societal groups can form the online equivalent of social movements with distinct repertoires of action, mobilizing structures and framing processes.

Until 2003 most of the literature on the Internet and political change in Singapore claimed Internet use had little impact because uses had been effectively 'auto-regulated' through the imposition of a strict legal environment and the creation of an atmosphere of self-censorship. The events of the last three years make these conclusions less accurate today. Through an aggregate data analysis and two in-depth case studies on the Singaporean Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered (GLBT) community and the alternative media it is argued that Internet use has precipitated subtle and incremental but important political changes in Singapore. Accelerating since mid-2005, an informal contentious politics has emerged online in Singapore. Thus Internet use has contributed to the renegotiation of state-society relations and, more importantly, holds the latent potential to generate deeper political changes. While the process of online contentious politics is still unfolding this project shows that uses of the Internet have made significant contributions to political change in Singapore.