Social policies Flashcards
What is a social policy
refers to the plans, programmes and laws made by the government with regards to health and social services, welfare benefit system, schools and other public bodies with the aim of tackling social issues.
- many affect families directly, others not directly aimed at families, can still affect them.
Divorce Law Reform Act, 1969
Made divorce easier by simplifying the grounds for divorce (no longer need for witnesses or a court case to get divorced)
Effect on family life:
- created family diversity
- way out of abusive or empty-shell marriages
- Many divorced women live in poverty
Feminist and Postmodernists - in favour
New Right - against
Sure Start
[introduced by labour] To deliver the best start in life for every child by bringing together early education, childcare, health and family support. Sure start centres provide - parenting classes - advise drop-in sessions - one-off maternity grant - weekly 12.5 free hours of nursery
Aim:
is to help families financially to get them out of poverty by encouraging parents back into work.
Sociological perspective:
New right - in favour + against
Dunzelot - against
Child trust fund
Child Trust Fund is an initial endowment from the government.
This will mean that when children reach the age of 18 they have an asset to draw on as a springboard for the future.
Aim
- long term policy - to get children out of poverty
Perspectives:
Marxism against – empty gesture policy
New Right against
Maternity and paternity leave
Statutory Maternity Leave is for 52 weeks.
Paternity Leave is two weeks.
Since 2010 - new dads, of babies born after April 2011, with partners who are returning to work, have the right to up to 26 weeks Additional Paternity Leave which can be taken between 20 weeks and one year.
[introduced by coalition government]
Effect
- March of progress to gender roles equality
Perspectives
New Right against
Feminists – Lib in favour, Rad against.
Benefit cuts
Coalition government’s policy is to ‘make work pay‘ by decreasing the amount of benefit payments people get, e.g. capped at £500 per week.
Effect
- making poor people even poorer
Perspectives
New Right in favour
Marxists and Feminists against
Child tax credit
Tax credits are payments from the government.
If you’re responsible for at least one child or young person who normally lives with you, you may qualify for Child Tax Credit.
[introduced by labour]
Effect
- families on lower incomes have more money so it improves their standard of living.
Perspectives
Marxism against – empty gesture policy
New Right against
Feminists in favour – helps single mothers who work
Civil Partnership Act, 2005
Allows the registration of civil partnerships between same sex couples.
Homosexual couples can also adopt children.
The aim of the law is to protect the rights of either party in line with heterosexual married couples, e.g. housing, pensions, etc.
Re-define marriage to be a legal union between 2 people thus creating full equality.
[introduced by coalition + labour]
Effect
- Increased equality and social justice
- Created family diversity
Perspectives
Feminists and Postmodernists in favour
New Right against
New deal
New Deal aims to help people get a job if they are out of work by providing them with training if they lack employability skills such as IT.
e.g. New Deal for Lone Parents is for people bringing up children as a lone parent, if the youngest child is under 16 years old and the parent is not working, or working less than 16 hours per week.
[introduced by labour]
Effects
- To get people out of poverty through work.
Perspectives
Marxists – against - empty gesture
Functionalist theory on social policies
Positive view on social policies, they are introduced by the government for the good of all.
Fletcher - family has gone through a process of structural differentiation (has lost many of its functions e.g. healthcare as it is provided by the government). Therefore, families can better perform the less, more important functions (4).
Criticisms:
- Functionalists assume that social policies benefit everyone equally
- Feminists argue it benefits men more than women
- Functionalists assume that social policies are making family life better, Marxists argue that they can make them worse. e.g. cutting benefits
New right theory on social policies
Negative view of social policies. Destroys the nuclear family by creating family diversity.
Murray - NF is self-sufficient and capable of taking care of its member so the state should not interfere.
e.g benefits provide perverse incentive (reward anti-social behavior)
Fathers abandon the responsibilities of providing for their families, encourage young single women to become pregnant, boys grow up without a positive male role model + turn to crime
Creates dependency culture
New social polices should try to protect the nuclear family:
- benefits should be eliminated
- divorce should be made more difficult to obtain
- cohabitation discouraged
- should be advantages for married couples in order to encourage people to have nuclear families
Criticisms:
- Feminists say that the NR is trying to re-establish the old patriarchal order because NR assume that the patriarchal nuclear family is ‘natural’ rather than socially constructed. Cutting benefits would make poor families even poorer.
Feminist theory on social policies
Negative view on social policies - designed in a way that makes it difficult for women to work
LAND - social policies help maintain women’s subordinate position and encourage a particular type of family structure. Social policies assume the ideal family is the NF.
LEONARD - some social policies are sexist:
1. maternity + paternity leave - longer for women, thus confining women to the home
2. Tax and benefits - assume that the man is the breadwinner so women cant claim benefits in their own right - makes women dependent on their husbands
3. Childcare - government pays for some of it, but not all
both parents can’t work its the women who has to sacrifice her job.
Criticism:
- equal pay +sex discrimination laws are not patriarchal
- support some social policies e.g. benefits for LPF - mainly women.
- In favour of divorce - freedom
Marxist theory on social policies
Negative view on social policies
Even when they look like they’re good for the w/c, they will ultimately benefit r/c and maintain capitalism. - empty gesture
e. g New deal - gets people back into work (working for r/c - low paid jobs - exploited - no promotional prospects)
e. g minimum wages - amount earned is lower than living cost.
e. g introduction of NHS - our taxes go to the funding of the NHS (cures workers to return to work and be exploited again).
Criticism:
Deterministic - assumes all aspects of family life are determined by economic forces. The approach focuses on the particular family type.
Government since 1970s
[1979-1997]
Conservatives
In this period, conservatives were heavily influenced by the new right and introduced many policies to protect traditional NF.
- Banned promotion of homosexuality in schools
- created ‘care in the community’ - closed down care homes for the disabled, elderly & mentally ill on the expectations they would be taken care of by their families.
- Set up child support agency to force all absent fathers to support their children.
However made divorce easier and quicker - MFP act in 1984
Government since 1970s
[1997-2010]
New Labour
Positive view on social policies - state intervention can improve the lives of families
They supported family diversity:
- Made adoption possible for unmarried + homosexual couples family diversity
- Increase benefits for LPF to get children out of poverty
- introduced minimum wage to improve living conditions of poorer families
