Family 5 - Policy

Question 1

Other countries family policy?

Answer 1

China’s one child policy (more than one child, pay fines and lose allowances and extra benefits)
Communist Romania drive up birth rate (restricted contraception and abortion, infertile treatment centres, divorce more difficult, legal age of marriage 15, unmarried adults & childless couples pay 5% more tax)
Nazi family (women kept at home, 375,000 disabled people sterilised)
Democratic families (families are private until they ‘go wrong’)

Question 2

Functionalists belief on policies?

Answer 2

They are good

Fletcher (1966) health, education and housing policies led to development of welfare state which supports family

Question 3

Criticisms of functionalists?

Answer 3

Assumes of member benefit equally (feminists argue it benefits men)
Assumes a ‘March of progress’ (Marxists say they can turn the clock back such as reducing money to poorer families)

Question 4

Donzelot (1977) family policing theory?

Answer 4

Social workers, health visitors, doctors use expert knowledge to exert control over families (more policies for poorer people because they are seen as anti-social, courts intervene with parenting orders/classes)