Singapore

S$2 million annually. That's what Singapore pays its Prime Minister—among the world's highest government salaries—based on explicit policy that competing with private sector compensation is necessary to attract scarce talent into public service. The Economist calls Singapore "the best advertisement for technocracy."

This city-state optimized for niche-construction with unusual precision. Government-linked companies control strategic sectors. The PAP has governed continuously since 1959 (66 years). Political competition is structurally constrained. Like a naked-mole-rat colony—highly specialized, hierarchical, with reproductive and labor division—Singapore sacrificed adaptability for efficiency.

The optimal-foraging-theory explains resource-allocation decisions. Land scarcity (only 733 km²) forced integrated master planning from independence. The Concept Plan projects physical development 50-100 years forward. The Long-Term Plan Review takes scenario-based approaches maintaining optionality across multiple futures. There was no margin for error, so institutional-memory became survival requirement.

Path-dependence shaped elite cultivation. Ministers receive salaries competitive with private sector. Academic performance determines civil service entry. The meritocratic pipeline creates a governance class selected, groomed, and retained through systematic incentive design. Like honeybee colonies where resources flow to demonstrated performers, Singapore's system rewards capability over connection.

But keystone-species dynamics create fragility. The system depends on continued elite competence and legitimacy. When the PAP achieved its lowest vote share (60%) in 2011, it signaled strains in the social compact. Housing affordability, low fertility (0.97 TFR requiring immigration), and limited ideological diversity all test the model.

As Singapore approaches its 2025 General Election under new PM Lawrence Wong, the question is whether technocratic governance can maintain legitimacy in a generation that didn't experience the scarcity that justified its constraints. The naked-mole-rat thrives in specific conditions; change those conditions, and the organism's advantages become vulnerabilities.