the new right

Question 1

why were new right ideas generaly unpopulatr among sociologists?

Answer 1

• new right ideas have generally not been popular with sociologists, partly because they emphasise the importance of the individual and free choice
• sociologists, by contrast, tend to see individuals as always operating in a social context and making choices influenced by their socialisation and the norms of the group to which they belong

Question 2

how does Saunders (1990) draw on new right ideas to explain social stratification?

Answer 2

• Unlike functionalists Saunders does not see stratification as an inevitable part of all societies
• however he argues that a society based on social equality woulod only be possible if considerable force were used for example the threat of death or imprisonment to endure that everyone did theier jobs to the best of their abilities because they would not be motivated by economic rewards

Question 3

what did Saunders (1990) say about equality?

Answer 3

• he argues that it is right and just that everyone enjoys legal equality
• he also supports the principle of equality of opportunity, this is similar to the functionalist idea of meritocracy
• it is a third type of equality, equality of outcomes, that Saunders rejects
• this would involve everyone being rewarded in the same way whether they deserve it or not
• like the functionalists, Saunders therefore argues that a degree of inequality is desirabkle and functional in order to motivate oeople to compete as lojng as everyone has an equal opportunity to take part in the competitopn `

Question 4

why is Saunders critical of left wing governments attempt to equalise society?

Answer 4

• he sees left wing government as misguided
• for example, taxing the rich to pay for benefits or programmes to help the poor or supposedly disadvantaged simply benefits or programmes to help the poor or supposedly disadvantaged simply interferes with market forces and reduces the incentive of the rich to invest in developing businesses
• similarly in education, attempts to ensure that working class children are mistaken because he argues that middle class children are mistaken because he argues that middle class children are probably more able and intelligent and deserve to do better than working class children

Question 5

what do critics of Saunders say?

Answer 5

• Saunders argues that it is mistaken to assume that capitalist societies based on the free market necessarily offer individuals more freedom than socialist or communist societies which seek to make people equal
• after all the system of slavery in parts of the USA in the early 19th century, the apartheid system of south Africa were black people were denied the same opportunities as whites, and military dictatorships such as Chile in the 1980s were all based on free market capitalism but were extremely oppressive4 in terms of the treatment of certain social groups
• many of the criticisms made by Tumin of functionalist theories of stratification could also be applied to Saunders and the New Right

Question 6

what did Murray (1984) say about government policies of benefits?

Answer 6

• murray argued that US government policies of providing welfare benefits for groups such as the unemployed and lone parent families were creating a dependency culture whereby poor people were given no motivation to better themselves
• for example, by trying to find paid work as they were allowed to remain dependent on the state
• the result was the creation of an underclass of people trapped at the bottom of society
• the underclass were not only a drain on taxpayers paying for their benefits but also tended to poorly socialise their children, meaning that they generally underachieved at school and turned to crime

Question 7

what did murray (1989) say about Britain developing an underclass?

Answer 7

• murray suggested that rising rates of births outside marriage, crime and youth unemployment were all signs that the irresponsible attitudes found in the underclass were infecting certain neighbourhoods in the UK
• Murray called for a reduction in welfare benefits and less government intervention to reduce poverty arguing that this did more harm than goof
• like other New Right thinkers, Murray argued that disadvantaged social groups such as lone parents and the unemployed needed to be encouraged to stand on their own feet rather than expecting the state to support them

Question 8

why have Murrays ideas been criticised?

Answer 8

• Studies of poor people tend to suggest only a minority have the kind of attitudes described by Murray as typical of the underclass
• most people without jobs and on benefits wants to work and earn a decent living
• it is unclear who exactly is responsible for the alleged problems created by the underclass
• sometimes Murray blames groups such as the unemployed and long perents for behaving irresponsibly for exampke, in refusing to work or by having children whom they cannot afford to support
• at other times he blamws the welfare state for encouraging this kind of behavioyr by giving benefits tio those who are undeserving

Question 9

how is the fact that Murrays work only focuses on those at the bottom end of society?

Answer 9

• Murrays work only focuses on those at the bottom end of society, the poorest
• he makes no connection between the wider pattern of social class inequality and the growing gap between the rich and poor in trying to understand why poverty is a growing problem in both Britain and the USA
• many Marxist and Weberian sociologists would argue that it is the working of the capitalist system that leads to poverty and inequality
• blaming the poor for their own poverty is simply blaming the victims of the system

Question 10

what did (2009) say about the negative effects of inequality?

Answer 10

Pickett (2009) carried out an analysis comparing the effects of inequality in a range of societies
-they ranked societies in terms of inequality by comparing the income of the richest 20% with the poorest 20% in each counter, with the richest 20% having only 4 times the income of the poorest 20% where as in singapoer the riches had nearly 10 tues the income of the poorest
-

Question 11

what was the index of health and social problems devised by Pickett?

Answer 11

• levels of mental illness
• infant mortality
• life expectancy
• obesity
• teenage births
• homicide
• imprisonment
• educational performance of children
• drug and alcohol addiction
• social mobility

Question 12

what are the explanations Pickett found for the correlation between high levels of ineruqlity and high levels of social and health problems?

Answer 12

• high levels of inequality mean low status for thiose at the bottom which in turn affects peoples mental and physical wellbeing
• low status can also lead to a sense of shame, possible encouraging higher rates of crime including homicide
• countries with greater inequalities also have less social mobility as te poorest groups are likely to be more disadvantaged in competing for top positions
• higher levels of inequality lead to a lack of trust between people which is dysfunctional for both rich and poor people

Question 13

why were Pickett criticised?

Answer 13

• it has been argued that they were selective in the countries they analysed and including countries such as South Korea, Slovenia and Hong Kong in their study would have produced a much less clear cut relationship between income inequality and problems such as poor health and crime
• theur study is also fairly crude as it simply measures social inequality by comparing the income of the richest and poorest 20% in each country