Prior to the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Singapore and Indonesia could be described as "soft authoritarian" and military-backed authoritarian regimes respectively. These regimes gave priority to economic growth over political development. When the economy backslid, the regimes? legitimacy faltered but did not necessarily collapse. The fate of these regimes depends crucially on other institutional foundations upon which it is built, which in turn determines the ability of the regime to ride out economic downturns. The differences are demonstrated by the different responses and outcomes to the 1997 crisis in the case of Singapore and Indonesia.