The party generally favours free-market economic policies, having turned Singapore's economy into one of the world's freest and most open,[19] but has at times engaged in state interventionism reminiscent of welfarism.

[20] On foreign policy, it favours maintaining a strong and robust military, serving as a purportedly indispensable guarantor of the country's continued sovereignty within the context of its strategic position for international finance and trade.

[21][22] Lee Kuan Yew, Toh Chin Chye and Goh Keng Swee were involved in the Malayan Forum, a London-based student activist group that was against colonial rule in Malaya in the 1940s and early 1950s.

[32] In April 1956, Lim and Lee represented the PAP at the London Constitutional Talks along with Chief Minister David Marshall which ended in failure as the British declined to grant Singapore internal self-government.

[34][35] Lim Chin Siong, Fong Swee Suan and Devan Nair as well as several unionists were detained by the police after the Chinese middle schools riots.

[38] Following this, the PAP decided to re-assert ties with the labour faction of Singapore in the hope of securing the votes of working-class Chinese Singaporeans, many of whom were supporters of the jailed unionists.

[39] Ex-Barisan Sosialis member Tan Jing Quee claims that Lee was secretly in collusion with the British to stop Lim Chin Siong and the labour supporters from attaining power because of their huge popularity.

Lee, who became the first Prime Minister and who will eventually helm this post for the next 31 years,[44] requested the British for the release of the left-wing members of the PAP, including the likes of Devan Nair.

The SATU collapsed in 1963, following the now PAP-led government's crackdown and detention of its leaders during Operation Coldstore and its subsequent official deregistration on 13 November 1963.

[46] In 1961, disagreements on the proposed merger plan to form Malaysia and long-standing internal party power struggle led to the split of the left-wing group from the PAP.

At that time and until the 2018 general election, the federal government in Kuala Lumpur was controlled by a coalition led by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

Upon independence, the nascent People's Action Party of Malaya, which had been registered in Malaysia on 10 March 1964, had its registration cancelled on 9 September 1965, just a month after Singapore's exit.

The PAP has held an overwhelming majority of seats in the Parliament of Singapore since 1966, when the opposition Barisan Sosialis (Socialist Front) resigned from Parliament after winning 13 seats following the 1963 general election, which took place months after a number of their leaders had been arrested in Operation Coldstore based on accusations of being communists affliated with the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM).

Aging leadership was a key concern, and then Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew sought to groom younger leaders.

A policy of cross-fertilisation was enacted: exchange of leaders, "elites" and talent would take place between private and government sectors, civilian and military segments of society, and between the party and the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).

[58] The next generation of leaders in the late 1980s was split between the factions of then Brigadier General Lee Hsien Loong and the older, more-experienced Goh Chok Tong.

On 23 November 2018, fourth-generation leadership members, then–Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat and then Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing were elected as the First and Second Assistant Secretaries-General respectively, the second and third highest positions of the party.

In an effort to attract members, then Chairman George Yeo said that people joining the YP could take positions different from central party leadership.

[83] The initiative was divided by two sub-committees, one of which was in charge of strategising the campaigns and is co-headed by Minister Lui Tuck Yew and MP Zaqy Mohamad.

In 2002, secretary-general Goh Chok Tong announced an intention to expand this programme, which at the time was primarily limited to "establishment figures" in the public and private sector.

[86] Consequently, the governance of the PAP has occasionally been characterised by some observers, especially in the West, as semi-authoritarian by liberal democratic standards or having turned Singapore into a nanny state.

[88] Lee Kuan Yew once said in 1992: "Through Hong Kong watching, I concluded that state welfare and subsidies blunted the individual's drive to succeed.

[89] Notably, since Singapore’s independence in 1965, the party has also supported the creation of state-owned enterprises, known within Singapore as Government-linked Corporations (GLCs), in order to jumpstart industrialisation, spearhead economic development and lead to economic growth (primarily job creation) in various sectors of the Singaporean economy as there was a lack of private sector funds and expertise, particularly in the early years of nationhood.

Various GLCs were formed to pursue strategic sectors such as in ship building and repair (Sembcorp Marine, Keppel Corporation), aviation and defence (Singapore Airlines, ST Engineering), telecommunications (Singtel), real estate (CapitaLand) and development finance (DBS Bank) amongst others.

In addition, various GLCs were set up as private-public partnerships, notable as joint ventures or strategic alliances with foreign companies or investors with relevant expertise, particularly in the petrochemicals and oil refining industries.

[90] Since the early years of the PAP's rule, the idea of survival as a small and vulnerable country with hostile neighbours has been a central theme of Singaporean politics.

[91] The PAP also advocates nationalism not based on ethnocentrism, encouraging a united Singaporean identity while also recognising the main ethnic groups that make up the country.

[92] At an Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) dialogue held on 2 July 2015 and chaired by Fareed Zakaria, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke about the need to maintain a Jeffersonian natural aristocracy in the system to instill a culture of respect and to avoid anarchy.

According to Chan Heng Chee, by the late 1970s the intellectual credo of the government rested explicitly upon a philosophy of self-reliance, similar to the rugged individualism of the American brand of capitalism.

Despite this, the PAP still claimed to be a socialist party, pointing out its regulation of the private sector, activist intervention in the economy and social policies as evidence of this.