The one-sentence truth: People do not act only from beliefs and values; they also respond to what is possible, costly, rewarded, punished and expected.
This is why constraints and incentives belong in GP vocabulary. Students often explain behaviour morally—people are selfish, governments are unwilling, firms are greedy—when a more useful explanation may involve costs, capacity, information or institutional rules.
Core vocabulary
| Term | Meaning | Question |
|---|---|---|
| constraint | a factor limiting available choices | What prevents action? |
| capacity | ability to perform or implement | Can the actor actually do it? |
| scarcity | limited resources relative to wants | What cannot all be provided? |
| incentive | a factor making behaviour more or less attractive | What changes the payoff? |
| disincentive | a factor discouraging behaviour | What makes action less attractive? |
| compliance | behaviour consistent with rules | Will actors follow the rule? |
| enforcement | mechanisms ensuring rules are followed | What happens if they do not comply? |
| friction | cost or difficulty that slows behaviour | What makes the action harder? |
| moral hazard | protection from consequences encourages greater risk-taking | Does protection change behaviour? |
| perverse incentive | an incentive producing behaviour opposite to the intended goal | Is the rule rewarding the wrong thing? |
Constraints are not excuses
A constraint explains what narrows choices. It does not automatically justify inaction. A government may face fiscal constraints but still choose among priorities. A student may face time constraints but still allocate time differently. Good analysis distinguishes limitation from responsibility.
Capacity constraints
A policy can be desirable on paper and fail because implementation capacity is weak. Teacher numbers, hospital beds, trained inspectors, digital infrastructure and administrative competence all shape what institutions can deliver.
Scarcity creates prioritisation
Scarcity does not mean absolute absence. It means resources are insufficient to satisfy every competing use. This is why budgets force trade-offs and why “government should simply fund both” is often incomplete reasoning.
Incentives change relative attractiveness
An incentive need not be money. Convenience, status, social approval, information, defaults and penalties can all alter behaviour. Congestion charges change the cost of driving. Public recognition changes social rewards. A default enrolment rule changes friction.
Incentive does not mean determinism
People respond differently to the same incentive because preferences and circumstances differ. A higher tax may strongly change behaviour for price-sensitive consumers and barely affect affluent ones. Good writing says incentives influence behaviour rather than assuming they mechanically determine it.
Compliance and enforcement
A regulation without credible enforcement may change little. But enforcement is not the only route to compliance. Legitimacy, social norms and ease of compliance matter too. Strong institutions often combine clear rules, workable processes and credible consequences.
Friction
Small inconveniences can strongly affect behaviour. Complex forms reduce uptake. Long queues discourage access. One-click purchasing increases consumption. Friction is useful vocabulary because behaviour can change without anyone’s values changing.
Perverse incentives
A target can produce the wrong behaviour when people optimise the metric rather than the underlying goal. Schools may teach narrowly to a test. Firms may meet a numerical target while degrading quality. The incentive succeeds at changing behaviour but fails at achieving the real objective.
Moral hazard
When people are protected from the consequences of risk, they may take more risk. Insurance, bailouts and guarantees can create this problem. The concept does not mean protection is bad; it means policy design should consider behavioural response.
Constraints in Paper 1
When proposing solutions, ask what limits implementation. Cost, time, authority, information, manpower and political consent can all matter. This prevents idealistic recommendations from floating above reality.
Constraints in AQ
Singapore may possess different constraints and capacities from the context in a passage. Dense infrastructure can make some policies easier. Small market size can make others harder. Strong administrative capacity can change the feasibility of enforcement. Application improves when students identify these differences.
From moral explanation to behavioural explanation
Weak: “People waste electricity because they are irresponsible.”
Stronger: “Consumption may remain high where users face weak price signals, limited feedback about usage and few convenient alternatives; changing incentives and information may therefore alter behaviour without assuming a change in values.”
Constraint-and-incentive audit
- What does the actor want?
- What constrains the choice?
- What capacity is missing?
- What is rewarded?
- What is penalised?
- Where is the friction?
- Could the incentive create unintended behaviour?
- Is compliance credible?
Seven-day drill
- Day 1: identify constraints in five policies.
- Day 2: separate willingness from capacity.
- Day 3: identify financial and non-financial incentives.
- Day 4: identify friction in one public service.
- Day 5: find a perverse incentive.
- Day 6: analyse compliance and enforcement.
- Day 7: rewrite one moral explanation as an incentive-and-constraint analysis.
Continue the JC2 GP vocabulary system
Return to the canonical General Paper Vocabulary Year 2 (JC2): Top 100 Words for A-Level GP 8881.
For the wider JC vocabulary architecture, read Vocabulary for Junior College (JC1–JC2): Adult Thinking, Professional Writing.
Final thought
Once you see constraints and incentives, behaviour becomes less mysterious. The GP question changes from “Why won’t they do the right thing?” to “What arrangement makes this behaviour rational, easy or difficult?”