Kampfner, political journalist turned human rights campaigner, addresses the anaesthetised freedom of the city state of his birth, Singapore, and the insidious spread of Lee Kuan Yew's model democracy to ask whetheryou can have economic success without political freedom. Singapore has made what he calls "a pact" with its citizenry. You can accrete wealth and trappings, eat good food, live in fine houses and enjoy a "good" life: just don't rock the boat. Free choice can mean choosing not to get involved. He pops one further factor into this pot: fear of chaos.

It is a pungent thesis, argued with verve and an abundance of detail. Maybe the force diminishes as we reach Obama, because he doesn't (yet) fit. Maybe the shock of the new blinds Kampfner to the grot of the old. And his habit of parading his travel schedules in the present tense – like Alan Whicker playing John Pilger – gets irritating. But none of this diminishes the book's fundamental questions, often posed with a clarity that makes you wince.