Marriage: public institution or private arrangement?

Marriage is frequently in the news; behind the headlines of celebrity affairs by Tiger Woods and John Terry, or the battle over legality of same-sex marriages, or the debate over the extent of damage caused by divorce, there lies the dilemma over whether marriage is a public or private issue. 

A UK government green paper recently stated ‘marriage is a personal and private decision for responsible adults with which politicians should not interfere.’  In response, Michael Trend, our colleague at the Relationships Foundation, said: ‘It is cohabitation that is a personal and private decision... But marriage, by its very nature, is a public decision that confers both privileges and obligations.
Private choices have public consequences. Government has, in recent years, been ready to influence what was considered previously to be private individual behaviour in many areas.  The health consequences of smoking are deemed to justify influencing people's choices, yet the fact that the longevity effect of marriage may even offset the consequences of smoking is ignored.

Since marriage is beneficial for society, not just for individuals, then the challenge for government is two-fold: how to promote marriage as an attainable ideal, in place of marginalising it and thus “normalising” cohabitation and divorce; and secondly, how to deliver the right kind of support so that couples find it easier to get married and stay married.