social policy Flashcards
Social policy
actions of state agencies
based on laws introduced by government
provide framework within which these agencies operate
policies not aimed at families but still have an effect on them (2)
policy of compulsory education enables parents to go out and work
taxation policies affect how much money is taken from families and how much is made available to pay for services provided for families
China’s one-child policy
aimed to discourage couples from having more than one child
couples who comply with the policy get extra benefits: free child healthcare, higher tax allowance, priority in education and housing in later life (for the one child)
women face pressure to undergo sterilization after their first child
couples who break agreement must repay the allowances and pay a fine
communist Russia (1980s)
series of policies to drive up birth rate
restricted contraception and abortion, made divorce harder, lowered legal age of marriage (15), made unmarried adults and childless couples pay extra 5% income tax
Nazi family policy (1930s)
state pursued a twofold policy
encouraged supposedly ‘racially pure’ to breed a master race: restricting abortion and contraception
official policy sought to keep women out of the workforce and confine them to ‘children, kitchen and church’
state compulsory sterilised 375000 disabled people that it deemed unfit to breed on grounds of ‘physical malformation, mental retardation, epilepsy, imbecility, deafness or blindness’
social policy in Democratic societies in relation to families
family is a private sphere of life in which the government does not intervene, except perhaps when things go wrong such as child abuse
Functionalism on social policies
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
Ronald Fletcher on social policy
introduction of health, education and housing policies in the years since the industrial revolution gradually led to development of welfare state that supports family
NHS- family is better able to take care of its members when they are sick
Criticisms of the functionalist view (2)
assumed all members of the family benefit equally, whereas feminists argue that policies often benefit men at the expense of women
assumes that there is a ‘march of progress’ -social policies steadily making family life better and better
Marxist argue that policies can also turn back the clock and reverse progress previously made, cutting welfare benefits to poor families
Rachel Condry on social policy
state may seek to control and regulate family life by imposing compulsory Parenting Orders through the courts
(Parents of young offenders may be forced to attend parenting classes to learn the correct way to bring up their children)
explain Donzelot: policing the family
uses Foucault’s concept of surveillance
Donzelot applies these ideas to the family
argues that social workers, health visitors and doctors use their knowledge to control and change families
calls this ‘the policing of families’
(Focault sees professionals such as doctors and social workers as exercising power over their clients by using their expert knowledge to turn them into ‘cases’ to be dealt with)
surveillance not targeted on all social classes equally - poor families more likely to be seen as cause of crime and anti-social behaviour : these are families that professionals target for improvement
Jacques Donzelot overview
conflict view of society
sees policy as a form of state power and control over families
who though that the state polices the family thru social policy
Donzelot
Marxist and feminist criticisms of Donzelot
failing to identify clearly who benefits from such policies of surveillance
Marxist argue that policies generally operate in the interests of the capitalist class
feminists argue that men are the main beneficiaries
new right on social policy
-what kinda problems does this create
policies have encouraged 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
Brenda Almond argues on social policies
(4)
modern policies and why they go against new right ideology
new right
-Laws making divorce easier
-introduction of civil partnerships sends out message that the state no longer sees heteresexual marriage as superior to other domestic set-ups
-tax laws discriminate against conventional families: tend to pay more tax than a dual-earner couple, each of whom has a tax allowance
-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
Charles Murray on social policy- examples of it
-what is he criticial of
critical of welfare policy
providing generous welfare benefits, council housing for unmarried teenage mothers which undermines conventional nuclear families and encourages deviant and dysfunctional family types that harm society
welfare benefits offer perverse incentives , they reward irresponsible or anti-social behaviour :
Murray argues that social policy is harmful because it will lead to: 3
if father see that the state will maintain their children, some of them will abandon their responsibilities towards their families
Providing council housing for unmarried teenage mothers encourages young girls to become pregnant
growth of lone-parent families, encouraged by generous benefits, means more boys grow up without a male role model or authority figure, responsible for rising crime rate amongst young males
why does Murray think Current policies are encouraging a dependency culture and what two problems does this cause
because individuals will come to depend on the state to support them and their children rather than being self-reliant
problem because:
it threatens two essential functions that the family fulfils for society:
successful socialisation of young
maintenance of the work ethic among men
The New Right’s solution to the problems social policy is causing
policy must be changed
cuts in welfare spending
tighter restrictions on who is eligible
reduce taxes by cutting welfare benefits and giving fathers more incentive to work and to provide for their families
denying council housing to unmarried teenage mothers would remove a major incentive to become pregnant very young
New Right also advocate policies to support the traditional nuclear family
such as taxes that favour married rather than cohabiting couples, making absent fathers financially responsible for their children
Functionalists Vs New Right
Functionalists: state welfare policies benefiting family- making it better able to meet its members’ needs
The New Right: the less the state interferes in families, the better family life will be
Evaluation of the New Right view (4)
-feminists: 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
Conservative government 1979-1997
who was in charge, what did they ban and set up
Mrs Thatcher’s conservative government
- banned the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities and ban on teaching that homosexuality was an acceptable family relationship
-Conservative saw divorce as a social problem so emphasised the continued responsibility of parents for their children after divorce
- Set up Child Support Agency to enforce maintenance payments from absent parents
New labour governments 1997-2010
similarities to New Right:
sees family as bedrock to society
see heterosexual, nuclear families as the best environment to bring up a child
new labour emphasised parental responsibility for bringing up their child
example: introducing parental orders for parents if young offenders
Silva and Smart on new labour social policies +examples of them
recognised that women now go to work too
Working Families Tax Credits, allowing parents to claim some tax relief of childcare
what were new labour social policies
policies favoured the dual-earner, neo-conventional family described by Robert Chester
longer maternity leave- making it easier for both parents to work (three months’ unpaid leave for both parents)
Working Families Tax Credits, allowing parents to claim some tax relief of childcare
difference between new right and new labour as reflected by the policies
New labour: certain types of state intervention can improve family lives whereas the New Right oppose state intervention
New Labour policies : welfare, taxation and minimum wage aimed at lifting children out of poverty
but new Right disapprove of the redistributing income through taxes and benefits
New Labour’s support for alternatives to the conventional, heterosexual nuclear family
evidence:
civil partnerships
unmarried couples’ rights to adopt
outlawing discrimination on the grounds of sexuality
the Coalition government 2010-15
(division means the conservative party has found it difficult to maintain consistent policy on the family)
conservative-led coalition introduced gay marriages, a view opposed by New-right traditionalists
influence of the traditionalists further weakened when conservatives had to share power with the liberal democrats
Browne on the coalition govt found that what type of family fared badly due to what policies
two-parent families with children fared particularly badly as a result of the coalition’s tax and benefit policies
Policy as self fulfilling prophecy (Hillary Land)
based on assumptions of what the normal family is like
Hillary Land argues many policies see the ideal family as the patriarchal, nuclear family with man as breadwinner, women as homemaker and dependent children
effect of the policies is to reinforce that particular type of family at the expense of other family types,
Policies supporting the patriarchal family
(3)
-Childcare: government does not provide enough childcare to allow both parents to work full time
unless they can meet additional costs. Government policies governing school timetables and holidays make it harder for parents to work full time
typically women that is restricted from working, placing them in a position of economic dependence to partners
-care for sick and elderly:
government policies assume family will provide this care, middle-aged women often expected to care (pivot generation due to increased longevity)
-child benefit is normally paid to mothers, and although this acts as a form of income it suggests that the child’s well-being rests primarily on the mother
Diana Leonard on social policies affecting women
even policies that appear to support women reinforce the patriarchal family and act as a form of social control over women,
e.g. maternity leave, as it is much more generous than paternity leave (or at least was) encouraging the assumption that the care of the child is the responsibility of mothers
maternity benefits are also low, increasing economic dependence on partner
evaluation of the feminist view
-not all policies are directed at maintaining patriarchy - many improve the position of women in the family and wider society
equal pay
sex discrimination laws
rights of lesbians to marry
benefits for lone parents
refuges for women escaping domestic violence
equal rights to divorce
said to challenge patriarchal family
similarly, marital rape being legally recognised in 1991
who talks about gender regimes
Eileen Drew
what are Eileen Drews two types of gender regimes
familistic gender regimes
individualistic gender regimes
explain Eileen Drews idea of gender regimes to describe how social policies in different countries can either encourage or discourage gender equality in family and work
identifies two types of gender regimes following different types of family policy:
familistic gender regimes:
policies based on traditional gender division,
In Greece, little state welfare or publicly funded childcare, women rely heavily on support form extended kin and there is a traditional division of labour
individualistic gender regimes
policies based on belief that husbands and wives should be treated the same
wives not assumed to be financially dependent
each partner has different entitlement to state benefits
Sweden: equal opportunity policies, state provisions of childcare, parental leave and good quality welfare services mean women are less dependent on husbands and have more opportunities to work
State versus Market (Eileen Drew)
she argues most European Union countries are now moving towards more individualistic gender regimes
likely to bring greater gender equality in family roles and relationships
since global recession in 2008, cutbacks in government spending have led to pressure on women to take more responsibility for caring as state retreats from providing welfare
during this period trend towards neo-liberal policies in which family encouraged to use market rather than state to meet their needs,
private pension provision and private care of the old
differences between European countries show that social policies can play an important role in promoting or preventing gender equality in the family
what does Eileen drew argue most European Union countries are now moving towards (gender regimes)
individualist gender regimes (men and women equal roles)
how did conservative gov go against new right ideas
(2)
- 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
what did Abbott and Wallace criticise the new right for
cutting benefits would simply drive many poor families into even greater poverty and make them even less self-reliant
