Fig. 1 . Political party in Elysium having a discussion over the secretary's (center) action.
The dominant regime in Elysium showcases of a communist regime with a central government power source where the government will decide and enforce the laws onto the citizens. The government (Fig.1) and selected small group of people are privilege to live in Elysium while the rest of the classless people lives in the ruins on Earth. The movie is similar to China's political regime as there are no freely elected national leaders and is run by a single party. (Wikipedia, 2022)
Fig. 2 Public hospital on Earth are overcrowded (top) while people living on Elysium have high-tech machines (bottom) at home to cure and reconstruct them.
The idea of communism may seem like Utopia as all resources are shared and every citizen works for their own share of food and money, however, it will be Dystopia in practice as there is always a ruling party pulling the strings and controlling the actions of the citizens, taking away their freedom of voicing out against the party. The ruling party and their associates will always have benefits above everyone else (Fig.2), causing a huge gap between the citizen and the higher-ups.
As Singapore practices democratic unitary regime, Singaporeans are able to have a choice on our ruling party in the government via elections that occur twice every decade. No form of hierarchy exists between citizens, which results in all citizens sharing equal benefits such as healthcare, education, quality of life, infrastructure and housing. Several similarities with communism based on my experiences living in a democratic society would be the sharing of resources, such as supply of medical equipment, education, food supply and reduced unemployment rates. Several differences with communism based on my experiences living in a democratic society would be that a democratic society does not impose restrictions on freedom of speech, where in fact according to "Article 14 of the Constitution of Republic of Singapore, specifically Article 14(1), guarantees to Singapore citizens the rights to freedom of speech and expression." (Wikipedia, 2022)
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References
Wikipedia. 2022. Politics of China [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_China> [Accessed 16 May 2022].
Wikipedia. 2022. Article 14 of the Constitution of Singapore [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_14_of_the_Constitution_of_Singapore#:~:text=Article%2014%20of%20the%20Constitution%20of%20the%20Republic%20of%20Singapore,assembly%20without%20arms%2C%20and%20association.> [Accessed 16 May 2022].
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