Social norms must drive policymaking

The Population White Paper proposes significant infrastructure investment to accommodate a growing population, but the current debate in Parliament has focused on the importance of national identity and need to ensure social cohesion.

Our social norms are an important part of our identity and social cohesion. Policymaking undergirded by desired social norms will help to shape and reinforce positive social norms.

Policymaking in Singapore has a strong market driven approach, fuelled by the belief that this would both ensure efficient use of public funds as well as allocation of limited resources. Market principles have, therefore, pervaded our public policies, sometimes resulting in unintended consequences.

For instance: Our market-driven vehicle allocation system has priced out middle-class families with COE prices touching S$100,000.

Increased littering has compelled leaders to turn the focus back on the use of social norms as a solution tool. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stated recently: “Members of the public will look at you and you will know that you have done something which is no good, and that’s how I think the Japanese do it, the Koreans do it.”

Here are a few examples of how policymaking with a focus on social norms can shape common spaces, charitable giving, parenthood and fair employment.

• Prices: Market-driven policies have resulted in more expensive food at our public attractions and food courts.

But the norm of having Singaporeans, rich or poor, enjoying common spaces must be considered before seeking the highest rent from public spaces.

The hawker stalls at Satay by the Bay may not generate the most profits for Gardens by the Bay, but making available affordable meals lets Singaporeans better enjoy their experience at the Gardens.

The decision to have social enterprises running hawker centres is a right step forward. Kampung@Simpang Bedok is a hawker centre run by a social enterprise that has provided a conducive family-oriented environment and kept prices affordable through lower rents.

• Charitable giving: The Government offers financial incentives, in the form of a 2.5 times tax deduction, for donations to local approved charities. To improve on our 53rd position in the 2012 World Giving Index for charitable donations, we need to consider how to strengthen the norms of giving back.

For example, the Ministry of Education contributes to a student’s Edusave account for earning the Good Character Award. To reinforce the norm of giving back, the money should rather go directly to the Student Welfare Fund, which the student, if from a poorer background, would have benefited from.

• Having children: Even as the Government rolled out enhanced monetary incentives to reverse the sinking fertility rate, we have to consider how we value families and children.

We have to shift the social norm of using the size of one’s pay cheque to define success in Singapore, by advocating the attractiveness of a job beyond merely its pay package, to its intrinsic value.

The current narrow definition of success compels more Singaporeans to delay marriage or parenthood to get ahead by working longer hours without familial encumbrance.

That said, in ensuring employers hire employees based on merit and not discriminate on age, gender and race in the workplace, the Government (via the Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices led by private and public sector entities) has been driving the norm of fair hiring by endorsing those who practise it.

Even as we have benefited from a market-driven economy, we have to ensure our society is not fully marketised through our public policies.

Citizens do not make decisions just based on economic rationale. The application of social norms is important in policymaking, and requires long-term efforts with the market incentives sometimes playing a complementary — but not dominant — role.

Soon Sze-Meng, a Singaporean, has public policy and business administration degrees and works in a multinational corporation.