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Interview

US democracy crumbles as money swamps politics: Singapore's Mahbubani

Diplomat says Biden win won't fix political 'plutocracy' -- and Asia must learn

Over $3.5 billion was spent on this year's U.S. presidential campaigns, more than double the roughly $1.5 billion spent when Donald Trump was elected in 2016.   © Reuters

SINGAPORE -- Joe Biden's defeat of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election will not heal the deep divisions in American society nor fix the fundamental problem in the country's politics -- the pervasive power of money -- one of Singapore's most prominent former diplomats argues.

Kishore Mahbubani, whose 33-year career in Singapore's foreign service included an appointment as ambassador to the United Nations and a stint as president of the U.N. Security Council, told Nikkei Asia that the U.S. is a "very angry, violent, polarized society" in need of structural reform -- providing cautionary lessons for Asia.

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