2.1 Social Policy

Question 1

Social policy

Answer 1

actions of state agencies based on laws introduced by government provide framework within which these agencies operate

Question 2

How can state policies affect family life?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What was the policy in Communist Romania?

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

What was the Nazi family policy?

Answer 4

A two-fold policy

• The racially ‘pure’ were allowed to breed
• But, the state compulsory sterilized 375,000 disabled people

Question 5

What is the policy for family in democratic society?

Answer 5

family is a private sphere of life in which the government does not intervene, except perhaps when things go wrong such as child abuse

Question 6

What do Functionalists see family policies as doing?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What does the functionalist, Ronald Fletcher (1966) argue?

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Why are functionalists criticized?

Answer 8

• 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

Question 9

Why does Donzelot reject the functionalist view that social policy helps?

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Why do Marxists and feminists criticize Donzelot?

Answer 10

He fails to identify who benefits from surveillance:

• Marxists argue this is capitalism
• Feminists argue this is men

Question 11

What do New Right think social policy such as gay marriage is doing?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Why is the New Right sociologist, Charles Murray critical of welfare policy?

Answer 12

• 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

Question 13

Why do the New Right think the dependency culture threatens the essential functions of society?

Answer 13

• Threatens the successful socialization of the young

- Maintenance of the work ethic among men

Question 14

What is the New Right’s solution?

Answer 14

• 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

Question 15

Why do the New Right disagree with functionalists that state policy is a positive thing?

Answer 15

In their view, the less the law ‘interferes’, the better the family will be
Greater self-reliance will make the family function better

Question 16

Why do feminists criticize the New Right viewpoint?

Answer 16

• 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

Question 17

For the New Right State policies have encouraged these changes, and helped undermine the nuclear family

Answer 17

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

Question 18

What do Abbot and Wallace argue?

Answer 18

Cutting benefits makes poor families poorer and makes them even less self-reliant

Question 19

What sociological viewpoint do Conservatives agree with?

Answer 19

The New Right

Question 20

What family social policy did the Conservative government introduce 1979-97?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Functionalists Vs New Right

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Evaluation of the New Right view

Answer 22

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

Question 23

What policies did the Conservatives set up that were opposed by the New Right?

Answer 23

• Made divorce easier

- Gave illegitimate children the same right as those to married parents

Question 24

How do Labour agree with the New Right?

Answer 24

• 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)

Question 25

What do Silva and Smart argue?

Answer 25

New labour rejected the New Right view that only males should earn, they recognized that females now work

Question 26

How did the New Labour policies favour dual-earner conventional families?

Answer 26

• 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

Question 27

What do some critics argue about the coalition?

Answer 27

The financial austerity policies were influenced by New Right policies to cut spending
-However, they had no policies that support the conventional nuclear family

Question 28

Feminism

Answer 28

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.

Question 29

evaluation of feminist

Answer 29

• 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

Question 30

Social policy evaluation = globalisation

Answer 30

• 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

Question 31

Contemporary example social policy

Answer 31

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.