Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/244606
Title: THE POOR IN A DEVELOPMENTAL WELFARE STATE : THE CASE OF SINGAPORE
Authors: WANG KECHENG
Issue Date: 2007
Citation: WANG KECHENG (2007). THE POOR IN A DEVELOPMENTAL WELFARE STATE : THE CASE OF SINGAPORE. ScholarBank@NUS Repository.
Abstract: Despite its affluence, Singapore offers little to the poor, relative to other countries. Furthermore, this is in the context of a substantial minority of the population that is poor, and rising income inequality. This paper seeks to understand this phenomenon, by conceptualizing the social welfare system in Singapore as a developmental welfare state. Social welfare is subsumed under economic imperatives, and also used as a tool for the overriding goal of economic growth. In Singapore, this translates to the developmental welfare state's main tenets: the goal of economic growth as the guiding imperative, personal responsibility and work ethic, and family/community involvement. The state takes an individualistic perspective on the poor. As a result, it places the responsibility of providing welfare onto the individual and other non-state actors, through the promulgation of various values. The position of the poor is not to be a financial burden on the state, and to contribute to the development of human capital. Social welfare can be construed as a social control mechanism to regulate the norms and behaviours of the poor to be in line with their position in a developmental welfare state. This is seen from the workings of social welfare schemes. Social welfare schemes are insufficient for the poor, and they are also restricted in their social control function by structural conditions that affect the poor. As such, a fundamental shift towards a more equitable social system is necessary.
URI: https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/244606
Appears in Collections:Bachelor's Theses

Show full item record
Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormatAccess SettingsVersion 
PdwWak.pdf39.83 MBAdobe PDF

RESTRICTED

NoneLog In

Google ScholarTM

Check


Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.