section_path: Ideology/Asian democracy
section_name: Asian democracy
paragraph_text: Asian democracy
  
  Professor Hussin Mutalib from the National University of Singapore (NUS) opines that the PAP has often set forth the idea of Asian democracy and values, drawing from a notion of Asian culture and Confucianism to construct ideological bulwarks against Western democracy. He added that for founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, "Singapore would be better off without Western-style liberal democracy".
  
  Consequently, the governance of the PAP has occasionally been characterised by some observers, especially in the West, as semi-authoritarian by liberal democratic standards or having turned Singapore into a nanny state. According to Professor Kenneth Paul Tan from the NUS, the PAP proclaim that many Singaporeans continue to vote for the party as economic considerations, pragmatism and stability triumph over accountability and checks and balances by opposition parties.