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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.
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.
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.

A. 어휘
30-something 30세쯤 되는. mandarins 관리, 공무원.
cast 陣容(진용), 배역. “Yes, Minister” 장관님.
secondment (공무원, 장교) 임시파견 근무자. spells 교대, 한 차례.
High-fliers 野心家(야심가). pop in and out of 들락거리다.
case studies 事例(사례)연구. current 현재의.
meritocracy 실력주의. reigns 지배하다, 통치하다.
all the way down the system 관료조직 전체에 걸쳐서.
Headmasters 교장. merit pay 成果給(성과급). underperform 실적이 낮다.
endemic 유행하는, 유행병. strategic intervention 전략적 간섭.
The Lees 李씨 家門(가문) 사람들. dabble 물장구치며 놀다, 잠간 손을 대다.