Social policy Flashcards
How does David Morgan say the govt is involved in family?
-Levels of govt expenditure and the extent of state provision
-Long term unemployment within families
-Rising divorce rates
-Increasing crime convictions of youths and anti social behaviour
-The link between the family and the economy
How does the divorce law reform act 1969?
Serial monogamy rise reduction of first marriages not committing a matrimonial offence and has decreased the empty shell family
Children grow up with less stress seeing mum and dad argue
More lone parent family and reconstituted family
How does equal pay act 1970/sexual discrimination act 1975 link to family?
Because everyone is equal shifts of breadwinners women may become the sole breadwinner and their will be a decrease in housewives
Dual worker households- egalitarian relationships less gender divisions of labour greater affluence
What is social policy?
A social or state policy is any attempt by the government to deal with a social problem, such as poverty, unemployment and the homelessness or to ensure that social needs such as a happy family life are achieved
Right wing/new right?
-Neoliberalism
-No nanny state
-Regard the nuclear family as ideal
-Neoconservatism
-Alternative family structures are seen as inadequate
Left wing/social democratic?
-Socialism/collectivism
-Support of alternative family
-Support the individual gender regimes (drew 1995)
-State should have a role in family life
What are familistic gender regimes?
Supported by right wing conservatives
When creating policies they see people as a family/community rather than an individual e.g. marriage
What are individualistic gender regimes?
Supported by left wing/labour
Sees a person as an individual when decides benefit entitlement
What is the conservative government of 1979-1997 policies for the family that are right wing?
-Failed to introduce the cost of childcare
-Many benefits were cut single parent benefits
-Child support agencys established which goes to anyone who has a child
-Introduced tax and welfare benefits for married couples
-Banned the promotion of homosexuality in education
-Privatised care for the elderly (not provided by the state)
What is the conservative government of 1979-1997 policies for the family that are left wing?
Made divorce easier
Matrimonial proceedings act 1984
What is social engineering?
When a government attempts to mould society to reflect their ideology
The new labour government of 1997 and 2010 modernist/socialist laws?
-More generous maternity leave pay and paternity leave (equality)
-Free childcare for 2.5 yr olds
-Civil partnership act 2004
-Working families tax credits tax relief on childcare cost
-Sure start center in w/c areas provided convenient access to support services and new deal for lps back in work
The new labour government of 1997 and 2010 conservative/traditional law?
Parenting orders for parents of truants and young offenders
The coalition govt 2010-2015 conservative policies?
-Child benefit became means tested
-Planned to tackle exposure to porn online
-Focus on problem families, troubled families programme introduced 2011 FIP
-Austerity measures led to cuts in public spending leading to an increase in child poverty (Bradshaw 2013)
-Legal aid cut, enabling people on low income to access legal services e.g. divorce
The coalition govt 2010-2015 labour/socialism policies?
Marriage same sex couples act 2013 passed
According to Charles Murray what is the cause of family breakdown?
Dissolution- divorce to easy to obtain
Dysfunction- parents not taking responsibility for children’s behaviour
Dadlesness- to many fathers loosing contract with children
What factors could lead to a family being identified for the troubled families programme?
Family’s involved in crime and antisocial behaviour
-Children that truant from school
-Adults who never work or those in long term employment and are therefore welfare dependant
-Are high cost in terms of what they claimed from the state and other problems such as poor health
How have people criticised the troubled familys?
Presents a misleading inaccurate version of past britain
Every generation over the last 200 yrs have expressed concern or moral panic and so called trouble/problem family’s
Has the troubled families programme been successful?
No it hasn’t
3/4 of the children/family are still committing crime, jobless and not at school
Functionalist theory on family policy?
Positive
Welfare policies have allowed the family to have become specialised (Durkheim)
-If govt can ease financial pressure on families e.g. it allows the family to focus on primary socialisation
-But they disapprove of policies supporting family diversity positively as the most efficient unit is the nuclear family headed by a male and female
Marxism on family policies?
-View with suspicion
-Believe that any social policy’s offering financial support to the proletariat families are a smoke screen intended to distract their attention away from their exploitation
-Lash and Dunsalot argue some social policies are designed to undermined parental authority, unlimited to fragmentate the proletariat e.g. troubled families programme trying to control smaller families
Feminism on social policies?
Support and criticise existing social policies
-Any social policy that support a woman’s decision to leave the (patriarchal) nuclear family is viewed positively child ta credits e.g. equal pay and divorce
-But Liberal fe,eosts argue these reinforce gender stereotypes, unequal maternity/paternity leave e.g. they would view these social policies and dislike familistic gender regime as mother and wife
New right theory on family policies?
View conservative social policies that reinforce the nuclear family as good such as when benefits were cut to single parent family’s like Margret Thatcher’s 1979-1997 govt
-They did this to reduce single parent family (yob cultures)
-They dislike labour laws because they try to promote diversity into the law
Donzelots theory on conflict theory?
Looked at post modernist Michael Foucault’s concept of surveillance (observing and monitoring)
-Professionals such as doctors and social workers exercise control over clients by using their expert knowledge to turn the into cases (the policing on the family)
-Poorer family’s targeted for this control and are seen as problem families targeted for improvement
Donzelot theory example?
-Truancy rates
-Exclusion rates from school
-Doctors controlling our health and what gets put in our system
-Attendance at school
Cross cultural and historical comparison of family policies- China?
One child policies
Established in 1979, Chinese families are now fined if they have more than one child equal to 3-10 the household income
Wealthy family’s can afford to pay fine or even leave the country giving birth to children in Singapore or US
-But the poor family’s struggle
-Cultural preference for male child to get abortions for unauthorised pregnancy’s and sterylised surgery’s
-Ratio is 118 boys:100 girls
Cross cultural and historical comparison of family policies- USA?
Low fertility rates due to promotion of contraception
They want population control by banning immigration from country’s
-Sterilisation of people with disability/mental illness as they are undesirable
Cross cultural and historical comparison of family policies- Iran?
No difficulty with high population, when it got low they offered reward for giving birth and anual money till the baby turns 18
How does marriage effect policies?
Tax brakes to newly married couples (conservatives)
-Same sex marriage act (coalition)
How does Child rearing affect policies?
Contraception, regulating abortion
family/factory acts as child labour laws (children used to be economic assets)
How does family diversity affect policies?
Same sex marriage act
Civil partnership
Divorce laws
Child support agency’s
How does equality in family life affect policies?
Equal pay act
Shared maternity and paternity leave
Sex discrimination laws
How does childhood affect policies?
Factory acts/child labour laws
Pay of childcare compulsory education extended
