social policy

Question 1

positivism+functionalism

Answer 1

-believe the government and sociologists play key roles in maintaining social order for the benefit of everyone
-role of sociologists is to act as an objective researcher on behalf of the government which ty can use to develop social polices (referred as objectivity through neutrality
-think that social changes should be applied gradually-piecemeal approach
-government should target one issue at a time and deal with it rather than make a large range of changes
evaluation:
-making small changes to individual parts of society does not help deal with the root causes of society’s problems
-marxists argue that no amount of policy development will truly benefit individual people+policies are designed to benefit the government

Question 2

New right perspective

Answer 2

thinks people should be as independent as possible+the governments interference into people’s lives should be kept to the bare minimum
-critical of the perverse incentives-women get pregnant on purpose to claim money and housing
-policy changes need to occur to make people more independent and take personal responsibility
-encourage marketisation of services eg education
-views are influential over conservative party
evaluation:
-theory is traditional and outdated-not everyone uses a nuclear family these days
-feminists claim it reinforces a patriarchal society+encourages oppression of women
-marketisation of public services leads to inequalities in service provision and fails to raise standards

Question 3

feminist perspective

Answer 3

-society is patriarchal and built upon men oppressing women
-Liberal feminists believe sociological researchers should work aside the government to introduce policies which help the position of women in society
-in the past had great success with campaigns eg suffragettes and fertility rights
evaluation:
policies haven’t fully helped eradicate patriarchal oppression
-feminists are pushing for change where it may not be needed EG-people don’t agree with maternity/paternity leave is with mostly women saying they want to b the one at home