2.1 Social Policy Flashcards
Social policy
actions of state agencies based on laws introduced by government provide framework within which these agencies operate
How can state policies affect family life?
E.g. the China one child policy limits the amount of children by women having to seek to get pregnant, those who comply get extra benefits
women face pressure to undergo sterilization after their first child
couples who break agreement must repay the allowances and pay a fine
What was the policy in Communist Romania?
- Wanted to drive up the birth rate
- Gave infertility treatment and made divorce difficult, restricting contraception
- The unmarried and the childless had 5% income tax
What was the Nazi family policy?
A two-fold policy
- The racially ‘pure’ were allowed to breed
- But, the state compulsory sterilized 375,000 disabled people
What is the policy for family in democratic society?
family is a private sphere of life in which the government does not intervene, except perhaps when things go wrong such as child abuse
What do Functionalists see family policies as doing?
society built on harmony and consensus free from major conflicts acting in the interest of society as a whole social policies being for the good of all see policies as helping families to perform their functions more effectively make better life for their members
What does the functionalist, Ronald Fletcher (1966) argue?
The introduction of health, education and housing policies has led to the development of a welfare state that supports the family
NHS- family is better able to take care of its members when they are sick
Why are functionalists criticized?
- Assumes that all family members benefit equally from social policy,
- whereas feminists argue that policies often benefit men at the expense of women
- Assumes there is a ‘march of progress’
- Marxist argue that policies can also turn back the clock and reverse progress previously made, cutting welfare benefits to poor familie
Why does Donzelot reject the functionalist view that social policy helps?
rejects functionalists’ march of progress view
sees social policy as a form of state control of the family
focusing on the micro level of how the ‘caring professionals’ act as agents of social control through their surveillance of families DOnzelot shows the importance of professional knowledge as a form of power and control
Why do Marxists and feminists criticize Donzelot?
He fails to identify who benefits from surveillance:
- Marxists argue this is capitalism
- Feminists argue this is men
What do New Right think social policy such as gay marriage is doing?
changes that lead to greater family diversity (increases in divorce, cohabitation, same-sex partnerships etc) are threatening the conventional family and producing social problems such as crime and welfare dependency
Why is the New Right sociologist, Charles Murray critical of welfare policy?
- Providing welfare benefits to non-nuclear families encourages deviant and dysfunctional behavior
- Murray argues they offer a ‘perverse incentive’
- Fathers are able to abandon families due to the state supporting the family left behind
- Providing council housing for unmarried teenage mothers encourages young pregnancy
Why do the New Right think the dependency culture threatens the essential functions of society?
- Threatens the successful socialization of the young
- Maintenance of the work ethic among men
What is the New Right’s solution?
- Policy must be changed to have cuts in welfare spending and tighter restrictions on benefits
- Cutting welfare benefits would reduce taxes as well as giving fathers more incentive to work
- Removing council housing for teenage mothers gets rid of the incentive to get pregnant young
Why do the New Right disagree with functionalists that state policy is a positive thing?
In their view, the less the law ‘interferes’, the better the family will be
Greater self-reliance will make the family function better
Why do feminists criticize the New Right viewpoint?
- Argue the New Right is trying to justify the nuclear family
- Wrongly assumes the nuclear family is ‘natural’
- Ignore the policies that do support the nuclear family
For the New Right State policies have encouraged these changes, and helped undermine the nuclear family
Brenda Almond argues:
Laws making divorce easier undermine idea of marriage as a lifelong commitment
increased rights for unmarried cohabitants such as adoption rights and succession for council houses tenancies and pension rights when a partner dies, begins to make cohabitation and marriage more similar. sends out signal that the state does not see marriage as special or better
What do Abbot and Wallace argue?
Cutting benefits makes poor families poorer and makes them even less self-reliant
What sociological viewpoint do Conservatives agree with?
The New Right
What family social policy did the Conservative government introduce 1979-97?
Thatcher’s conservative government banned the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities
included a ban on teaching that homosexuality was an acceptable family relationship
Conservative saw divorce as a social problem
emphasised the continued responsibility of parents for their children after divorce
Set up Child Support Agency to enforce maintenance payments from absent parents
on the other hand, conservatives brought up policies opposed by the new right:
making divorce easier
giving ‘illegitimate’ children the same rights as those born to married parents
Functionalists Vs New Right
Functionalists see state welfare policies benefiting family, making it better able to meet its members’ needs. The New Right says the less the state interferes in families, the better family life will be
Greater self-reliance and no reliance on state is what will enable the family to meet its members’ needs most effectively
Evaluation of the New Right view
feminists argue it is an attempt to justify a return to the traditional patriarchal nuclear family
wrongly assumes that the patriarchal nuclear family is ‘natural’ rather than socially constructed
Abbott and Wallace argue that cutting benefits would simply drive many poor families into even greater poverty and make them even less self-reliant
New Right ignores many policies that support and maintain the conventional nuclear family rather than undermine it
What policies did the Conservatives set up that were opposed by the New Right?
- Made divorce easier
- Gave illegitimate children the same right as those to married parents
How do Labour agree with the New Right?
- They see the family as a bedrock of society
- See family headed by a heterosexual couple as the best
- Think parents need responsibility of children (set up Parenting Orders for truants and offenders)
What do Silva and Smart argue?
New labour rejected the New Right view that only males should earn, they recognized that females now work
How did the New Labour policies favour dual-earner conventional families?
- Gave longer maternity leave, right to seek time off work for family reasons
- Working Families Tax Credit- enabled tax relief to be claimed on childcare costs
- The New Deal- helping lone parents return to work
What do some critics argue about the coalition?
The financial austerity policies were influenced by New Right policies to cut spending
-However, they had no policies that support the conventional nuclear family
Feminism
conflict view
see society as patriarchal
benefitting men at a women’s expense
argue that all social institutions, including the state and its policies, as maintaining a women’s subordinate position and unequal gender division of labour in the family
Women find it more difficult to claim benefits as tax and benefits policies may assume that husbands are the main wage earners and that wives are their financial dependants. - reinforces women’s dependence on their husband
Diana Leonard = argues although maternity leave policies benefit women, they reinforce patriarchy in fam, encouraging the assumption that care of infants is the responsilbity of mothers than fathers.
evaluation of feminist
- not all polices are directed at maintaining patrirchy society =
- Sex Discrimination Act
- Equal Pay Act
- Rape within marriage a legal offense in 1961
Eileen Drew = Uses the concept of ‘gender regimes’ to describe how social policy in different countries either encourages or discourages gender equality
E.g. Sweden
Social policy evaluation = globalisation
- Gov social policy over the last 30 years has been to allow a greater amount of migrants to enter Uk = ( but here comes Priti Patel)
- The effect of increased immigration - increased family diversity and especially mixed-race couples
Contemporary example social policy
Universal credit =benefit put into place 2018 = by tory gov
Any person recieving welfare benefits from gov will now receive all different benefits into one single payment called universal cred = why is that? = to make complex system of benefits simpler and to give the payment every month like a salary so budget.
New right - In favour. Its like training people on benefits to behave in more work like way. Getting them ready for work. Breaking culture of dependency or the cycle of deprivation. Changing their norms and values to reflect the norms and values of wider society.
