‘Singapore-West’ hybridization: policy learning in the development of leadership training in the Singapore Public Service

ABSTRACT An assumption by Rose and Dolowitz and Marsh was that policy-makers looked overseas for solutions when faced with policy problems. In setting up the first leadership training scheme in the Singapore Public Service in 1959, policymakers eschewed learning from abroad. Instead, the new centre for training the Administrative Service leadership corps was grounded in the Singapore context without reference to foreign exemplars. The local context continued to loom large at each phase in the development of leadership training in th Singapore bureaucracy over the years leading to the 1993 establishment to the Civil Service College (CSC). The pre-eminent consideration accorded to rooting lessons from abroad to suit the practicalities of the local context ultimately meant a very ‘Singapore-West’ hybridization.