Shaping the Singapore family, producing the state and society

Abstract

Abstract Baby bonuses, tax incentives and other policies devised by the Singapore state to encourage marriage and boost fertility have attracted much attention: on one hand, demographers have pointed to their limited effects in reversing demographic trends. On the other hand, they are taken as evidence of a strong state with huge capacity for ‘social engineering’. These two contrasting perspectives suggest that the state's effects are more complex than either view captures. The article brings together the two ‘truths’ about family policies to demonstrate the full range of its effects. Drawing on in-depth interview data, it shows that negotiations of the structural context produced by family policies generate self-consciously Singaporean meanings and normative practices, at the same time that they clarify and legitimize the state's often paradoxical positions towards the family. Ultimately, family policies give ideological and practical content to both ‘state’ and ‘society’.