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One thing that stands out in Singapore is the quality of its civil service. Unlike the egalitarian Western public sector, Singapore follows an elitist model, paying those at the top $2m a year or more. It spots talented youngsters early, lures them with scholarships and keeps investing in them. People who don’t make the grade are pushed out quickly.

新加坡特别突出的一点就是其行政机构的服务质量。不像持平等主义的西方公共部门，新加坡走的是精英道路，最高层的年薪是两百万或者更多。新加坡早早就注意有才干的年轻人，用奖学金吸引他们，持续地向他们投资。达不到要求的就迅速被淘汰。

Sitting around a table with its 30-something mandarins is more like meeting junior partners at Goldman Sachs or McKinsey than the cast of “Yes, Minister”. The person on your left is on secondment at a big oil company; on your right sits a woman who between spells at the finance and defence ministries has picked up degrees from the London School of Economics, Cambridge and Stanford. High-fliers pop in and out of the Civil Service College for more training; the prime minister has written case studies for them. But it is not a closed shop. Talent from the private sector is recruited into both the civil service and politics. The current education minister used to be a surgeon.

同一桌30多岁的新加坡高级官吏坐在一起就像会见高盛或麦肯锡的次级合伙人，而不是见《是，大臣》的演员。在你左边的人借调到了一家大油厂工作，坐你右边的这位女士在财政和国防部期间获得了伦敦政治经济学院、剑桥、斯坦福的学历。公共服务学院迎来送往抱负极高的人，他们为了获得更多的培训；而总理为他们撰写案例分析。来自私营经济的人才被招到行政机构和政治体制里。现任教育部长原来是名外科医生。

Western civil services often have pretty good people at the top, but in Singapore meritocracy reigns all the way down the system. Teachers, for instance, need to have finished in the top third of their class (as they do in Finland and South Korea, which also shine in the education rankings). Headmasters are often appointed in their 30s and rewarded with merit pay if they do well but moved on quickly if their schools underperform. Tests are endemic.

西方行政机关高层的人通常是不错的，但是在新加坡，自上而下全是精英制度。比如说，教师必须是以班上前三名的身份毕业（芬兰、韩国同样如此，它们在教育方面的排名同样遥遥领先）。任命三十至四十来岁的人当校长，如果干得好就有绩效奖，但如果学校表现不好，马上就会被调走。考核在新加坡已经根深蒂固。

How much strategic intervention takes place in the economy? The Lees have dabbled in industrial policy, betting first on manufacturing and then on services. Temasek manages a portfolio of S$190 billion ($150 billion). The country is now trying to push into creative industries, with limited success thus far, as ministers admit.

在经济中，战略性干预有多少呢？两位李总理都涉足了产业政策，首先是靠制造业，而后是服务业。淡马锡所有的投资总和达1900亿新元（1500亿美元）。现在新加坡正努力向创意产业进军，官员们承认迄今为止的成就还很有限。

These attempts at dirigisme have made Singapore a more reserved, less entrepreneurial place than Hong Kong with its feverish laissez-faire. It certainly has far fewer larger-than-life billionaires. But it is hard to hail Singapore as a success of top-down economic management in the way some Chinese seem to think. Indeed, the core of Singapore’s success—its ability to attract foreign multinationals—owes far more to laissez-faire than to industrial policy.

这些中央集权下的经济统制使得新加坡与极度自由放任主义的香港相比显得更为拘谨、企业氛围更少。有传奇色彩的亿万富翁同样也少得多。但是，如一些中国人想的那样把新加坡称为自上而下经济调控的典范是不对的。事实是，新加坡成功的核心——吸引外国跨国公司的能力——主要归功于自由放任主义，而不是其产业政策。